The  Mormons 

and 

Their    Bible 

Rev.  M.  T.  Lamb 


BP8Z7 
\80l    . 


THE  GRIFFITH  AND 
ROWLAND  PRESS 


Brigham  Young 


THE 

MORMONS  AND  THEIR  BIBLE 


BY 

Rev.  M.   T.   LAMB 


PHILADELPHIA 

Zbc  (Srtffitb  &  IRowlanD  press 

1901 


Copyright  1901  by  the 
American  Baptist  Publication  Society 


December,  1901 


jfrom  tbe  Society's  own  press 


PREFACE 


The  present  treatise  is  a  revision  of  the  book  known 
as  "The  Golden  Bible,"  published  by  the  author  some 
fourteen  years  ago,  containing  the  substance  of  lectures 
he  had  previously  delivered  to  the  Mormons  all  over 
Utah.  The  book  as  published  then  met  with  a  cordial 
reception  everywhere,  but  was  too  "bulky"  for  the 
largest  circulation.  The  present  volume  contains  only 
about  one-half  of  the  matter,  carefully  selected  from  the 
old  edition,  with  some  changes  and  the  introductory 
chapter  on  "The  Mormon  Problem,"  which  has  never 
before  been  published. 

The  author  believes  that  in  its  present  form  it  will  be 
found  much  better  adapted  to  fulfill  its  mission  ;  and 
he  sends  it  forth  with  the  earnest  prayer  that  it  may 
assist  in  accomplishing  three  important  ends  : 

i.  Furnish  the  "ounce  of  prevention"  ;  keep  hon- 
est, conscientious  people  from  becoming  Mormons. 

2.  Reach,  if  possible,  many  already  in  the  church 
who  have  become  uneasy  and  unsettled,  before  they 
shall  have  completely  wrecked  their  souls  upon  that 
fearful  shoal — the  rejection  of  the  true  God  and  his 
holy  word. 

3.  Give  the  outside  public  a  clearer  insight  into  the 
puzzling  problem  of  Mormonism,  so  that  they  may  go 
about  its  cure  more  intelligently  ;  especially  that  they 
may  cherish  a  larger  sympathy  for  the  great  multitude 
of  deceived  ones,  while  at  the  same  time  encouraging 
the  enactment  of  the  most  stringent  laws  for  the  com- 
plete suppression  of  the  monster  fraud. 

M.  T.  Lamb. 

Trenton,  N.  J.,  May,  1901. 


ENDORSEMENT 


After  reading  the  manuscript  of  "The  Golden 
Bible,"  placed  in  my  hands  by  Rev.  M.  T.  Lamb,  I 
desire  to  give  the  book  my  most  earnest  endorsement. 
It  bears  the  unmistakable  evidences  of  an  honest  man's 
mind  and  heart,  is  not  written  in  hate  or  malice,  but 
in  a  spirit  of  calm  philosophy.  He  has  gone  about  the 
work  of  testing  the  Mormon  Creed  in  a  way  that  must 
commend  itself  to  all  fair  men.  No  member  of  the 
Mormon  Church  can  honestly  take  exception  to  the 
methods  adopted.  Mr.  Lamb's  investigation  is  thor- 
ough, his  argument  plain,  and  his  conclusions  irresist- 
ible. 

The  time  has  come  for  the  American  people  to  face 
deliberately  this  Mormon  proposition,  and  I  feel  that 
the  phase  of  the  question  treated  by  Mr.  Lamb  could 
not  be  improved  upon.  To  all  people  interested  in  true 
religion  and  opposed  to  a  fanaticism  that  is  at  once 
destructive  of  the  individual  and  a  menace  to  a  repub- 
lican form  of  government,  "The  Golden  Bible"  will 
be  highly  treasured. 

C.  B.  Landis,  M.  C. 

May  27,  1900. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 
The  Mormon  Problem 9 

CHAPTER  II 
Authenticity  of  the  Book  of  Mormon 28 

CHAPTER   III 
Miracles  in  the  Book  of  Mormon 52 

CHAPTER   IV 
The  Bible  Undermined 80 

CHAPTER  V 
American  Antiquities  versus  the  Book  of  Mormon  .    114 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Portrait  of  Brigham  Young    ....*•'...  Frontispiece 

Portrait  of  Sidney  Rigdon 34 

Portrait  of  Joseph  Smith 66 

Characters  from  the  Brass  Plates 120 

Hieroglyphics  on  the  Copan  Statue 122 

Tlie  Maya  Alphabet 124 

Idol  from  Central  America 132 

Tablet  of  the  Cross 135 

Portrait  of  Orson  Pratt 144 


THE  MORMONS  AND  THEIR  BIBLE 


CHAPTER   I 


THE    MORMON    PROBLEM 


THE  great  mass  of  our  people  are  quite  ignorant  of 
the  real  problem  of  Mormonism.  The  popular 
conception  would  be  that  the  average  Mormon  is  a 
brute,  an  animal,  controlled  by  animal  instincts  and 
passions,  religiously  a  hypocrite,  using  his  religion  as  a 
cloak  to  cover  up  base  passions. 

Polygamy  is  supposed  to  be  the  sore,  the  great  curse 
of  Mormonism.  And  when  the  fact  is  stated  that  in 
its  palmiest  days  only  about  one  in  ten  or  one  in  twelve 
of  the  Mormon  population  was  a  polygamist  at  all,  and 
when  the  further  fact  is  learned  that  the  converts  to 
Mormonism  are  very  largely  from  religious  people, 
members  in  fairly  good  standing  in  our  Protestant 
churches,  good,  conscientious,  respectable  people  when 
they  became  Mormons,  then  the  average  person  be- 
comes puzzled  and  perplexed. 

No  one  can  form  a  proper  idea  of  Mormonism  by 
studying  it  from  the  standpoint  of  polygamy,  or  Blood 
Atonement,  or  the  Adam-God  theory,  or  the  Moun- 
tain Meadow  massacre.  These  are  excrescences,  fun- 
gus growths,  revealing  diseased  conditions  within,  un- 
doubtedly ;  but  studied  by  themselves  they  give  very 
little  idea  of  the  living,  breathing,  powerful  organism 
out  of  which  they  exude.  Scrape  off  these  excrescences, 


IO  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

and  Mormonism  would  still  remain  intact,  and  probably 
far  more  dangerous  than  it  is  to-day,  because  more 
alluring.  Before  either  of  these  repugnant  doctrines 
was  openly  announced,  the  success  of  the  new  theo- 
logical venture  was  simply  phenomenal. 

Organized  near  Palmyra,  Western  New  York,  on  the 
sixth  day  of  April,  1830,  with  six  members,  in  less  than 
eighteen  months  they  had  enrolled  two  thousand  ;  and 
in  fourteen  years,  from  1830  to  1844,  the  year  Mr. 
Smith  was  killed,  they  claimed  one  hundred  thousand 
converts,  with  a  flourishing  mission  in  England  that 
already  numbered  several  thousand. 

The  large  majority  of  the  first  two  thousand  con- 
verts were  from  Baptist  churches  in  eastern  Ohio  and 
western  Pennsylvania.  It  came  about  in  this  way. 
From  1823  to  1830  two  entire  Baptist  Associations 
were  almost  destroyed,  the  majority  of  their  churches 
with  their  members  having  been  captured  for  Alexander 
Campbell's  fold.  One  of  the  most  aggressive  and  suc- 
cessful agents  in  this  capture  was  the  eloquent  and  mag- 
netic Sidney  Rigdon,  who  had  recently  been  deposed 
from  the  pastorate  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  in  Pitts- 
burg, Pa.  When  in  the  early  fall  of  1830  Mr.  Rigdon 
was  suddenly  converted  to  Mormonism,  he  went  over 
this  same  ground,  in  eastern  Ohio  and  western  Penn- 
sylvania, and  swept  a  large  number  of  these  people 
into  the  Mormon  fold.  And  so  it  came  about  that  the 
majority  of  the  first  two  thousand  converts  to  Mor- 
monism had  previously  been  connected  with  Baptist 
churches. 

Another  Baptist  minister,  Mr.  Spencor,  while  pastor 
of  the  Baptist  church  in  Danbury,  Conn.,  became  a 
Mormon,  somewhere  in  the  thirties,  and  likewise  the 
first  and  the  leading  writer  on  Mormonism.  "  Spencer's 
Letters;  or,  Reasons  for  becoming  a  Mormon"  had 
an  immense  sale.     They  were  circulated  by  the  tens  of 


THE    MORMON    PROBLEM  II 

thousands  all  over  this  country  and  England,  and  had 
much  to  do,  in  the  early  history  of  the  Mormon  Church, 
in  securing  the  attention  of  intelligent  and  Christian 
people  to  the  claims  of  the  new  religion. 

An  intelligent  Welshman,  who  had  studied  for  the 
Baptist  ministry,  was  converted  to  the  Mormon  faith. 
Returning  to  his  native  land  as  a  missionary,  and  secur- 
ing a  Methodist  clergyman  as  a  co-laborer,  he  traveled 
all  over  Wales  and  in  three  years  baptized  three  thou- 
sand persons,  nearly  all  of  them  from  Baptist  and 
Methodist  churches,  in  some  cases  capturing  the  entire 
church,  the  members,  the  pastor,  meeting-house,  and 
all. 

When  Apostle  Snow  began  his  remarkably  successful 
mission  in  Scandinavia,  in  1850,  the  first  fifteen  con- 
verts he  baptized  were  from  the  First  Baptist  Church  in 
Copenhagen  ;  and  within  three  years  he  had  re-bap- 
tized a  thousand  Baptists  from  Denmark  alone.  A 
great  many  other  similar  facts  might  be  given,  for  other 
Christian  denominations  suffered  greatly,  especially  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  :  Joseph  Smith  was  indebted  to 
a  Methodist  camp-meeting  for  his  earliest  and  most 
pronounced  religious  convictions,  Brigham  Young  was 
a  licensed  exhorter  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
and  several  other  prominent  Mormon  leaders  were  from 
the  same  denomination. 

These  brief  statements  must  suffice  as  testimony  to 
the  fact  stated,  that  a  great  many  of  the  rank  and 
file  in  the  Mormon  Church  were  religious  people, 
and  members  of  evangelical  churches  before  they  be- 
came Mormons.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  Mormons 
have  never  been  successful  in  making  converts  outside 
of  evangelical  Protestantism.  They  have  made  repeated 
efforts  to  reach  Roman  Catholics,  both  in  our  own 
country  and  in  Europe,  having  begun  missions  in 
nearly  every   Catholic    nation    in    Europe.     Some    of 


12  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

these  missions  they  have  pushed  with  great  vigor  and 
persistency,  but  quite  largely  they  have  proved  com- 
plete failures.  They  have  also  undertaken  missions  to 
nearly  every  heathen  nation  on  the  face  of  the  globe, 
but  failure  has  been  the  outcome.  Their  very  success- 
ful missions  in  the  Sandwich  Islands  and  New  Zealand 
and  Australia  have  been  among  the  Christian  natives, 
gathered  by  the  American  Board  and  other  evangelical 
agencies,  or  from  Protestant  European  emigrants  to 
those  distant  lands.  Possibly  stranger  still  to  the  unin- 
formed reader,  will  appear  the  statement  that  the  Mor- 
mons have  been  equally  unsuccessful  in  reaching  the 
great  mass  of  our  own  people  called  in  common  par- 
lance the  "unconverted."  Explain  this  as  we  may, 
the  simple  fact  remains,  that  the  peculiar  appeal  of  the 
Mormon  Church  to  persons  not  thoroughly  religious, 
that  is,  people  without  strong  religious  convictions,1 
has  largely  fallen  upon  deaf  ears. 

It  is  perhaps  but  the  part  of  candor  to  state  that 
many  of  these  converts  to  the  Mormon  faith  were,  very 
likely,  somewhat  peculiar  in  their  make-up.  There  is, 
possibly,  one  person  in  every  ten,  or  three  out  of  every 
one  hundred,  so  constructed  as  easily  to  become  Mor- 
mons. People,  for  instance,  who  take  much  stock  in 
dreams,  or  visions,  or  special  impressions,  or  ghost 
stories,  are  liable  to  be  easily  caught  by  the  peculiar 
methods  and  experiences  of  the  Mormon  missionaries. 

Possibly  a  still  larger  number  of  Mormon  converts 
have  come  from  conscientious  Christians  who  have 
grown  pessimistic  as  to  the  present  condition  of  Chris- 
tendom, compared  with  the   apostolic  church.      They 


1  There  are,  of  course,  many  exceptions  to  this  rule.  We  shall  see  as  we 
proceed,  that  many,  especially  among  the  leaders,  join  the  Mormon  Church 
purely  "  for  the  loaves  and  fishes."  A  great  multitude  of  the  new  converts 
from  foreign  countries,  join  the  church  and  come  to  Utah  to  better  their  con- 
dition from  a  worldly  point  of  view.  This  is  far  more  true  now  than  it  used 
to  be  before  the  introduction  of  polygamy. 


THE    MORMON    PROBLEM  1 3 

have  discovered  sad  degeneracy  to-day  in  various 
directions  and  hence  listen  readily  to  the  man  who  can 
tell  them  of  a  church  that  restores  everything  found  in  — 
the  primitive  church  :  Apostles,  prophets,  evangelists, 
bishops,  teachers,  the  Aaronic  and  the  Melchizedek 
priesthood,  the  laying  on  of  hands  for  the  reception  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  with  all  the  miraculous  gifts  that  fol- 
lowed— speaking  with  tongues,  gifts  of  healing,  casting 
out  devils,  discerning  of  spirits,  etc.  They  take  kindly  to 
the  enforcing  of  the  tithing  system,  the  demolition  of 
the  various  sects  of  Christendom,  all  secret  societies,  a 
salaried  ministry,  and  various  other  mischievous  things, 
as  they  view  them,  that  have  crept  into  the  church  of 
Christ  to-day. 

It  would  be  difficult,  or  quite  impossible,  in  the  brief 
compass  of  a  few  sentences  to  give  an  intelligent  con- 
ception of  the  very  strong  appeal  which  Mormonism 
makes  to  religious  natures. 

i.  How  thoroughly  captivating,  for  instance,  is  their 
statement  regarding  the  Book  of  Mormon.  Given  the 
two  well-known  facts  :  (i)  that  for  thousands  of  years  » 
past  there  have  existed  upon  this  Western  continent 
vast  multitudes  of  men  and  women  with  an  intelligence 
and  a  civilization  in  some  instances  rivaling  that  of 
ancient  Greece  and  Rome  ;  and  (2)  that  these  vast  mul- 
titudes of  people  had  no  communication,  direct  or  in- 
direct, with  the  Eastern  continent,  and  therefore  no 
possible  means  of  participation,  in  any  form,  in  the 
benefits  of  the  revelation  God  was  making  of  himself  in 
Palestine,  through  prophets  and  apostles  and  through 
his  son  Jesus  Christ — given  these  two  facts,  how  ex- 
actly it  accords  with  all  our  ideas  of  the  love  and  the 
justice  of  God  that  he  should  not  have  left  these  vast 
multitudes  of  intelligent  people  without  any  revelation 
of  himself,  or  possibility  of  knowing  his  will,  or  oppor- 
tunity of  salvation. 


14  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

2.  Nothing  could  be  more  impressive  or  reasonable, 
superficially  considered,  than  the  statement  already 
made,  that  Mormonism  is  a  return  to  the  purity,  priv- 
ileges, and  power  of  the  church  in  the  first  century. 
Clearly  and  fully  presented,  with  a  thousand  real  facts 
at  hand,  skillfully  marshaled,  this  constitutes  an  exceed- 
ingly strong  appeal  to  earnest,  conscientious,  Bible 
Christians. 

3.  The  story  of  their  experiences  in  becoming  Mor- 
mons is  often  thrilling.  I  once  listened  for  an  hour  to 
a  very  intelligent  Mormon,  gifted  with  fine  conversa- 
tional powers,  while  he  gave  me  the  story  of  his  con- 
version to  the  Mormon  faith,  when  a  young  man  in 
England.  His  mother  was  a  Baptist ;  nearly  all  his 
other  relatives  belonged  to  the  Established  Church, 
and  had  means  and  influence.  Discovering  promise 
in  the  young  man  these  relatives  offered  to  put  him 
through  a  full  university  course  if  he  would  consent  to 
enter  the  Episcopal  ministry.  While  hesitating  between 
his  mother's  baptism  and  the  tempting  offer  of  his  Epis- 
copal friends,  a  Mormon  elder  found  him  and  so  pre- 
sented what  he  termed  the  truth  that  he  at  once  ac- 
cepted it  with  all  his  heart,  and  was  made  supremely 
happy  ;  happy  in  the  consciousness  that  he  had  at  last 
secured  the  real  thing,  the  genuine  old  gospel  in  its 
pristine  purity  !  Happy  too,  though  facing  the  fact 
that  joining  the  Mormons  meant  ostracism  and  prob- 
ably poverty,  the  sacrifice  both  of  mother  and  friends. 

4.  Closely  related  to  this  are  the  personal  sacrifices 
made  by  those  who  become  missionaries — sometimes 
leaving  a  successful  business  in  jeopardy,  or  selling  their 
homes  ;  going  without  a  salary,  absolutely  at  their  own 
charges,  or  depending  upon  the  benevolence  of  the 
people  where  they  minister  ;  often  driven  to  straits, 
"in  hungerings  and  fastings  often " ;  persecuted,  threat- 
ened, abused;   sometimes  "  rotten-egged  "  or  "tarred 


THE    MORMON    PROBLEM  1 5 

and  feathered ' '  by  foolish  people  who  do  not  under- 
stand human  nature,  for  opposition  creates  sympathy. 
' '  The  blood  of  the  martyrs  ' '  has  always  proved  ' '  the 
seed  of  the  church."  And  this  is  as  true  of  a  false  re- 
ligion as  of  the  true. 

The  now  noted  B.  H.  Roberts  very  naively  says  : x 

The  preaching  of  the  gospel  without  purse  or  scrip  by  the 
elders  of  the  church  has  been  a  very  successful  method  of  making 
known  the  truth  among  men.  There  is  something  in  it  which 
goes  right  home  to  the  hearts  of  the  honest.  It  is  a  method  too, 
which  has  in  the  main  built  up  the  church  so  far. 

These  are  some  of  the  strong  appeals  Mormonism 
makes  to  our  nature  on  its  religious  side.  But  it  does 
not  stop  here,  for  it  appeals  to  all  sides  of  our  nature. 

5.   Let  me  mention  its  immense  appeal  to  human  con-    ^ 
ceit,  to  our  love  of  position  and  power,  and  the  extreme 
gratification  we  all  naturally  feel  in  distancing   every- 
body else. 

Mormonism  and  true  Christianity  are  at  the  antip-  J 
odes.  No  two  systems  on  earth  could  be  farther  apart 
in  their  spirit,  their  motive,  their  central  thought.  The 
center  of  the  Christian  system  is  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ; 
the  center  of  the  Mormon  system  is  the  "ego,"  the  I, 
myself.  Christianity  humbles,  Mormonism  exalts  ;  Chris- 
tianity crucifies,  Mormonism  pampers.  When  Jesus 
begins  his  work  in  an  unrenewed  heart  he  finds  it  su- 
premely selfish.  The  "ego"  fills  the  space,  there  is 
no  room  for  Jesus.  When  Jesus  reveals  himself  to  that 
heart  and  is  received  there,  suddenly  the  /  becomes 
smaller  and  Jesus  larger. 

Mormonism  directly  reverses  this  process.  When  a 
man  becomes  a  Mormon,  if  he  had  previously  been  a 
decided,  earnest  Christian,  he  comes  into  possession  of 
views  and  opinions  concerning  himself  that  immediately 

1  "  Succession  to  the  Presidency,"  p.  113. 


1 6  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

begin  to  bring  the  /into  prominence.  How  this  pecu- 
liar condition  of  things  is  brought  about  may  be  readily 
seen  by  a  brief  glance  at  some  of  their  religious  tenets  : 
(i)  They  have  far  more  Bible,  more  revelation  than  we 
have.  This  will  be  considered  later,  in  the  discussion 
of  the  Book  of  Mormon.  Suffice  it  now  to  say  that  in 
the  estimation  of  the  Mormons  we  have  only  one  Bible, 
a  book  completed  eighteen  hundred  years  ago  in  Pales- 
tine, and  designed  specially  for  the  Jews  and  the  Gentiles 
of  that  day  and  that  portion  of  the  world,  whereas  the 
Mormons  have  all  that  and  four  other  books  besides  ; 
all  of  the  four  written  upon  this  Western  Continent,  and 
specially  designed  for  use  upon  this  continent,  and  three 
of  them  modern  books,  containing  present-day  revela- 
tions for  our  times  and  our  people.  And  then  in  ad- 
dition to  all  these  books,  and  more  practical  and  valu- 
able than  they  all,  the  Mormons  have  real  living  proph- 
ets, through  whom  God  communicates  directly  and  con- 
tinually present-day  revelations.  (2)  The  Mormons 
make  more  of  baptism  than  we  do.  To  us  baptism  is 
simply  an  outward  symbol  of  an  inward  work  wrought  in 
the  heart  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  to  be  submitted  to 
once  for  all.  To  the  Mormon  baptism  is  a  very  prac- 
tical thing,  a  lifelong  agent  ;  it  cleanses  from  sin,  and 
therefore  may  be  repeated  as  frequently  as  needful. 
The  average  faithful  Mormon  is  supposed  to  be  bap- 
tized once  a  year,  to  wash  away  the  sins  of  the  year. 

But  this  tells  only  a  small  part  of  the  truth  as  to  the 
large  place  this  ordinance  occupies  in  the  Mormon  sys- 
tem. Charles  W.  Penrose,  the  editor-in-chief  of  "The 
Deseret  Evening  News,"  the  leading  Mormon  paper 
of  the  world,  and  himself  a  leading  authority  in  the 
church,  in  his  "Mormon  Doctrine,"  thus  grows  elo- 
quent over  the  subject  of  baptism  : 1 

1  See  pp.  47-53. 


THE    MORMON    PROBLEM  I J 

The  divine  fiat  has  gone  forth  that  "  Except  a  man  be  born  of 
water  and  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God." 
This  is  a  fixed  law.  .  .  Baptism,  or  the  birth  of  water  in  the  form 
and  mode  already  described,  is  an  essential  ordinance.  .  .  As 
aliens  cannot  be  admitted  to  the  rights  and  privileges  of  citizen- 
ship in  an  earthly  government,  without  complying  with  the  natu- 
ralization laws  in  such  case  made  and  provided,  so  aliens  from  the 
heavenly  kingdom  cannot  be  received  into  its  dominion,  nor  be 
adopted  into  the  family  of  the  eternal  King,  without  obeying  the 
laws  set  as  the  conditions  of  admission.   .   . 

The  living  may  be  baptized  for  the  dead.  Other  essential  ordi- 
nances may  be  attended  to  vicariously.  This  glorious  truth,  hid 
from  human  knowledge  for  centuries,  has  been  made  known  in 
this  greatest  of  all  divine  dispensations.  It  is  indeed  light  in  the 
midst  of  darkness.  It  shines  in  the  depths  of  the  shrouded  past, 
illuminates  the  mystic  future,  and  reveals  the  infinite  love  of  God 
and  his  tender  mercy  over  all  his  works.  It  explains  the  meaning 
of  Scripture  texts  long  considered  difficult  and  obscure.  It  links 
by  loving  ties  the  living  with  their  dead.  It  shows  why  the  fa- 
thers "  without  us  cannot  be  made  perfect."  It  opens  the  way  of 
redemption  for  the  hosts  of  departed  heathen.   .   . 

The  saints  in  the  flesh  are  required  to  use  all  due  diligence  in 
obtaining  their  genealogies  by  the  means  at  command,  and  a  spirit 
has  moved  upon  men  in  the  world  to  collect  and  perfect  and  pub- 
lish the  records  of  their  ancestors,  by  which,  thousands  upon 
thousands  of  acceptable  names  have  been  obtained,  and  the  work 
of  vicarious  baptism  already  done  is  immense.1  But  that  which 
remains  to  be  accomplished  is  so  vast,  that  no  mind,  unless  illu- 
minated by  the  light  of  God,  can  see  how  it  can  ever  be  per- 
formed and  perfected.  Vet  it  will  be  done,  and  blessed  are  they 
who  aid  in  the  heavenly  labor  !  With  what  joy  will  they  be 
greeted  by  the  spirits  of  their  progenitors  when  they  meet  them 
in  paradise  !  What  honor  will  crown  their  brows  in  the  day  of 
reward  and  compensation  !     They  will  stand  among  the  saviours, 

iSome  idea  of  the  prevalence  of  this  peculiar  belief  may  be  gained  by  figures 
cited  in  "  Succession  to  the  Presidency,"  by  B.  H.  Roberts,  pp.  109,  no.  In 
the  four  temples  now  in  Utah,  in  St.  George,  Logan,  Manti,  and  Salt  Lake 
City,  there  were,  up  to  the  date  given,  December  31,  1893  :  Baptisms  for  the 
dead,  683,377  :  ordinations  to  the  priesthood  for  the  dead,  120,232  ;  endow- 
ments for  the  dead,  300,511  ;  sealings  of  husbands  and  wives  to  the  dead  and 
of  children  to  dead  parents,  69,749.  In  eight  months  the  number  of  baptisms 
for  the  dead  in  the  one  temple  in  Salt  Lake  City  was  21,750,  or  about  32,000  per 
year.  At  the  same  rate  there  would  have  been  up  to  the  present  time  over 
224,000  in  this  one  temple.  And  probably  not  less  than  1,500,000  in  the  four 
temples ! 

This  will  sufficiently  indicate  the  great  importance  attached  to  this  doctrine 
by  the  Mormons  and  the  very  vital  place  it  occupies  in  their  system. 

B 


1 8  THE    MORMONS   AND   THEIR    BIBLE 

and  shine  among  their  kindred  who  are  redeemed,  like  glorious 
suns  in  the  heavenly  constellations  ! 

This  divine  plan  of  vicarious  action,  is  one  of  the  broadest, 
brightest,  and  loveliest  leaves  in  the  blessed  tree  of  life  ! 

(3)  Professedly  the  Mormons  make  much  larger  ac- 
count of  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  than  we  do.  Every 
one  who  becomes  a  full-fledged  Mormon  must  receive 
the  Holy  Spirit  through  the  laying  on  of  the  hands  of 
the  elders.  This  is  made  the  most  important  ceremony, 
the  climax  in  his  religious  life. 

The  ceremony  of  the  bestowal  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  called  con- 
firmation. As  baptism  is  the  birth  of  water,  so  confirmation  is 
the  birth  or  baptism  of  the  Spirit.  Both  are  necessary  to  entrance 
into  the  kingdom  of  God,  whether  that  is  viewed  in  the  light  of 
the  church  on  earth  or  the  glorious  dominion  of  the  Father  in 
heaven.1 

My  single  purpose  in  this  connection  is  to  point  out 
from  the  Mormon  point  of  view  how  they  greatly  excel 
us  in  their  direct  dealings  with  the  Holy  Spirit.  I  quote 
Mr.  Penrose  again  : 2 

Its  internal  fruits  are  faith,  knowledge,  wisdom,  joy,  peace,  pa- 
tience, temperance,  long-suffering,  brotherly  kindness,  and  charity. 
Its  external  gifts  are  manifested  in  prophecies,  visions,  discern- 
ment, healings,  miracles,  power  over  evil  spirits,  speaking  in  va- 
rious tongues,  interpretation  of  tongues,  etc. 

In  brief,  all  that  the  early  church  in  the  first  age  se- 
cured by  the  laying  on  of  hands,  is  to-day  claimed  by 
these  Latter-day  Saints. 

(4)  Mormons  do  more  praying,  after  a  fashion,  than 
the  majority  of  professing  Christians  around  them.  At 
least  they  glory  over  us  in  this  respect,  that  every  secu- 
lar enterprise  undertaken  must  be  begun  and  completed 
with  prayer,  every  business  meeting,  for  whatever  pur- 

1  Penrose,  in  "  Mormon  Doctrine,"  p.  21.  ^ Ibid.,  p   20. 


THE    MORMON    PROBLEM  1 9 

pose,  every  dancing  party— and  the  Mormons  are  very 
fond  of  dancing,  usually  giving  their  young  people  the 
use  of  the  church  one  night  every  week  for  this  purpose  ; 
but  every  such  dance  must  be  opened  with  prayer  and 
closed  with  the  benediction.  The  same  is  true  of  all  the- 
atrical performances — in  which  Utah  abounds.  Every 
day's  work  is  begun  with  prayer,  just  as  every  meal 
must  be  preceded  with  the  ' '  grace  ' '  by  the  head  of  the 
family.  It  does  not  affect  the  situation  or  suggest  any 
incongruity  that  this  same  head  of  the  family  has  per- 
haps uttered  a  horrid  oath  just  before  or  immediately 
following  this  perfunctory  duty. 

(5)  They  give  more.  The  tithing  system  is  well-nigh 
universal  and  very  rigidly  enforced.  As  a  matter  of 
fact  their  property  and  their  persons  are  held  subject  to 
the  orders  of  the  church  ;  submitting  their  temporal 
and  spiritual  affairs  alike  to  their  elders,  they  hold  these 
simply  as  agents  to  execute  any  plan  that  the  elders 
consider  needful  in  carrying  out  their  schemes  of  con- 
quest and  enlargement.  With  the  forms  of  a  republic 
and  of  political  freedom,  Utah  is  distinctly  a  hierarchy, 
and  a  hierarchy  that  has  many  points  of  affinity  with  the 
well-oiled  political  machines.  The  path  to  preferment 
and  to  worldly  prosperity  for  all  is  through  zealous  serv- 
ice to  religion  and  to  the  elders.  Obedience  is  unques- 
tioned. When,  for  instance,  it  is  desired  to  establish  a 
center  of  influence  in  some  neighboring  State  or  Terri- 
tory, the  order  from  headquarters  goes  to  the  leaders 
of  the  "  Stake  in  Zion  "  to  set  aside  a  certain  number 
of  families  for  this  purpose  from  his  "  Stake  "  ;  and  the 
families  designated  dispose  of  their  property  and  set 
forth  to  form  a  new  Mormon  colony.  Thus  the  leaders, 
with  the  chess  board  of  the  West  before  them,  are  able 
to  move  their  pawns  in  the  permanent  execution  of 
their  plans,  the  same  as  a  ward  leader  would  colonize 
his  district  for  the  temporary  purpose  of  a  campaign. 


20  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

In  its  "Quorums  of  the  Seventies,"  the  Mormon 
Church  has  in  reserve  a  body  of  devoted  agents  whom 
it  can  send  as  the  Jesuit  priests  were  sent  on  missionary 
work  to  any  part  of  the  world.  From  this  body  nearly 
two  thousand  missionaries  are  now  in  the  field,  and  it 
is  understood  that  if  it  needs  them,  the  church  can  place 
seven  or  eight  thousand  missionaries  at  strategic  points. 
The  system,  as  Joseph  Smith  has  stated  it,  permits  ulti- 
mately the  setting  apart  of  one  hundred  and  forty-four 
thousand  men  for  this  peculiar  ministry.  The  "Quo- 
rums of  the  Seventies"  are  based  on  the  example  of 
the  Saviour  who  sent  out  seventy  men  to  go  two  by  two. 
These  men  are  obliged  to  go  out  two  by  two  to  any 
portion  of  our  own  country  or  to  any  part  of  the  world 
where  ordered  by  their  superiors,  and  they  go,  not  as 
the  families  above  mentioned,  to  form  a  colony  chiefly 
for  voting  purposes,  with  the  possibility  of  improving 
their  financial  prospects  by  the  change  ■  but  these  go 
as  missionaries  to  give  their  whole  time  to  preaching  the 
Mormon  cause  and  propagating  their  faith  ;  and  they 
go,  as  already  learned,  at  their  own  charges,  selling 
their  property,  if  needed,  to  provide  the  necessary  outfit 
and  traveling  expenses  ;  putting  all  the  rest  of  the  re- 
ligious world  to  the  blush  for  their  seeming  consecration 
to  their  religious  convictions.    .    . 

(6)  But  their  crowning  glory  is  in  their  priesthood.  .  . 
The  climax  of  exalted  privilege  is  reached  when  a  man 
has  secured  the  double  priesthood,  the  Aaronic  and  the 
Melchizedek  priesthood.  The  Mormons  are  a  nation 
of  priests.  Every  male  among  them  is  eligible.  Mor- 
mon boys,  between  twelve  and  fourteen  years  of  age, 
become  deacons.  From  eighteen  to  twenty  a  boy  may 
enter  the  lesser  or  Aaronic  priesthood  ;  if  he  has  per- 
formed its  duties  faithfully  until  twenty-five  or  thirty 
years  of  age,  he  may  then  be  admitted  to  the  greater  or 
the  Melchizedek  priesthood.      This  brings  to  him  privi- 


THE    MORMON    PROBLEM  21 

leges,  prerogatives,  and  powers  such  as  have  never  been 
vouchsafed  to  mortals  on  earth  before.  He  has,  for 
instance,  complete  control  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  can 
impart  him  to  any  person  upon  whom  he  chooses  to  lay 
his  hands.  The  Mormon  Holy  Spirit,  like  the  Mormon 
God,  is  wholly  material,  a  sort  of  ethereal  fluid,  or 
spiritual  electricity,  composed  of  material  atoms  that 
can  be  chained  and  harnessed  and  controlled  at  the 
beck  of  those  who  are  skillful  and  have  secured  the  keys 
of  this  power  by  their  entrance  upon  the  Melchizedek 
priesthood.  But  this  ethereal  fluid  makes  these  Mel- 
chizedek priests  omnipotent  and  omniscient.  All  that 
the  Lord  Jesus  enjoyed  or  claimed,  while  here  in  the 
flesh,  of  wisdom  or  power  or  direct  dealing  with  God 
or  divine  intuition  into  men's  thoughts  and  hearts,  these 
double  priests  do  not  hesitate  to  claim. 

And  this  wonderful  power  reaches  into  the  eternal 
world  and  is  largely  increased  there,  so  that  what  they 
"bind  on  earth  shall  be  bound  in  heaven."  In  the 
other  life  these  double  priests  claim  that  they  are  to 
become  full-fledged  gods,  being  possessed  of  creative 
power.  Each  one  of  them  is  supposed  to  strike  off 
somewhere  in  the  realms  of  space  and  create  for  him- 
self a  world  and  people  that  world  with  his  own  offspring 
and  rule  over  it  forever  as  its  god.  The  Mormons  be- 
lieve in  ' '  polytheism. ' '  There  are  as  many  separate 
gods  as  there  are  separate  worlds.  Each  world  has  a 
god  of  its  own,  who  looks  after  its  interests  and  controls 
absolutely  its  destinies.  Over  all  the  worlds  and  over 
all  the  gods  one  supreme  deity  presides,  but  he  lives  in 
an  immense  world,  far  off  somewhere  in  space  that  they 
call  "Kolob."  He  is  himself  a  material  being,  "with 
body  and  parts"  that  prevent  his  being  omnipresent, 
so  that  practically  he  has  very  little  to  do  with  the 
affairs  of  the  different  worlds,  only  occasionally  meet- 
ing the  different  gods  in  grand  council.     Aside  from 


22  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

this,  each  god   looks  after  his  own  world  in   his  own 
way. 

Our  God,  who  manages  the  affairs  of  this  world,  is 
Adam,  the  father  of  our  race.  Brigham  Young  had 
the  unspeakable  honor  (?)  to  reveal  this  great  fact  to 
the  world  : 

Now  hear  it,  O  inhabitants  of  the  earth,  Jew  and  Gentile,  saint 
and  sinner.  When  our  Father  Adam  came  into  the  garden  of 
Eden,  he  came  into  it  with  a  celestial  body  and  brought  Eve,  one 
of  his  wives,  with  him.  He  helped  to  make  and  organize  this 
world.  He  is  Michael  the  Archangel,  the  Ancient  of  Days,  about 
whom  holy  men  have  written  and  spoken.  He  is  our  Father  and 
our  God,  and  the  only  God  with  whom  we  have  to  do.1 

Adam,  then,  our  first  parent,  is  our  God,  and  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  the  son  of  Adam,  not  the  son  of 
the  supreme  deity  who  resides  in  Kolob,  but  the  son 
of  Adam  through  the  Virgin  Mary,  who  became  one 
of  his  wives  for  this  purpose  ;  and  this  son  of  Mary, 
through  our  father,  Adam,  can  never  rise  quite  so  high 
in  the  future  life  as  the  average  Melchizedek  priest, 
because  Jesus  belongs  forever  to  this  world,  the  king- 
dom of  his  father,  Adam,  and  will  be  for  evermore  asso- 
ciated with  his  father  in  redeeming  and  blessing  its 
inhabitants,  but  can  never  have  a  world  of  his  own. 
The  Mormons  do  not  hesitate  to  put  their  views  on 
this  subject  thus  tersely  and  squarely. 

"What  God  was  once  we  are  now;  what  God  is 
now  we  shall  be."  One  can  hardly  utter  such  horrid 
blasphemies  without  shuddering,  but  it  is  impossible  to 
know  what  Mormonism  is  and  what  are  its  legitimate 
fruits  in  the  lives  and  character  of  its  people  without 
a  perfect  understanding  of  its  foundation  doctrines. 
For  instance,  this  Adam-God  theory  lies  at  the  founda- 
tion and  makes  necessary   the  doctrine  of  polygamy. 

1 "  Journal  of  Discourses,"  Vol.  VI.,  p.  50. 


THE    MORMON    PROBLEM  23 

The  theory  is  that  these  Melchizedek  priests  must  begin 
their  kingdom  here  in  this  world,  and  the  size  of  the 
coming  kingdom  as  well  as  the  place  each  of  these  pros- 
pective gods  shall  occupy  among  the  constellation  of 
gods  will  depend  upon  two  earthly  conditions:  the 
number  of  children  they  have  here  to  start  their  king- 
dom with  and  the  number  of  wives  who  have  proven 
their  ability  to  bear  children,  for  "marriage  belongs  to 
the  corporeal  sphere."  They  cannot  procure  new 
wives  in  the  next  world,  and  hence  the  size  and  rapidity 
of  the  growth  of  the  future  kingdom  will  depend  upon 
the  number  of  prolific  wives  these  prospective  gods 
shall  secure  in  this  world.  Those  only  who  have  proved 
their  capacity  in  this  direction  here  upon  earth  are 
accounted  most  desirable  in  the  world  to  come,  as 
child-bearing  is  to  be  their  business  and  their  chief 
glory  during  the  eternal  ages. 

This  monstrous  doctrine  is  the  source  of  that  other 
abomination,  "celestial  marriage,"  as  it  is  called,  the 
most  Satanic  scheme  ever  devised  in  the  name  of  re- 
ligion. There  are  two  kinds  of  marriage,  one  for  this 
life  and  for  eternity  and  the  other  for  eternity  only. 
That  is  to  say,  if  one  of  these  prospective  gods  fails  to 
secure  here  on  earth  in  a  legal  way  all  the  wives  he 
needs  for  his  celestial  harem  he  may  persuade  one  or 
more  of  his  neighbors'  wives  secretly  to  enter  into  this 
"celestial  marriage"  covenant  with  him,  remaining 
with  their  present  husbands  here  on  earth  but  agreeing 
to  a  "change"  in  the  next  sphere.  In  this  way,  we 
are  told,  Joseph  Smith  had  sealed  to  him  a  generous 
outfit  of  wives,  enough  to  insure  him  the  very  highest 
rank  among  the  gods.  In  this  way  attractive  leaders  in 
Zion,  with  oily  tongues  and  pious  phrase,  have  led 
captive  silly  women,  breaking  up  humble  but  happy 
homes,  and  driving  into  apostasy  from  the  church  and 
lifelong  despondency  many  honest,  conscientious  saints. 


24  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

But  returning  to  our  starting-point,  it  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  see  how  all  this  feeds  the  ego  and  makes  clear 
the  statement  that  the  Mormon  system  stands  at  the 
"antipodes  "  of  the  Christian  system.  If  the  Christian 
system  has  the  Lord  Jesus  as  its  central  sun,  the  Mor- 
mon system  has  the  individual,  the  I,  myself,  as  its 
center.  And  though  it  may  begin  with  a  large  Jesus 
and  exalted  Christ,  it  ends  with  a  large  "I,"  the  "  I  " 
a  god  and  Jesus  a  ' '  back  number. ' ' 

If  there  were  space  in  this  brief  outline  of  the  "  Mor- 
mon problem"  it  would  be  just  as  easy  to  point  out, 
with  any  number  of  illustrations,  how  the  Mormon 
system  has  been  shrewdly  contrived  to  appeal  to  all 
sides  of  human  nature,  not  only  to  the  religious  side 
and  to  human  conceit,  as  already  described,  but  to  the 
social  instincts  and  the  animal  passions. 

But  these  particular  phases  of  the  Mormon  problem 
are  already  sufficiently  well  understood  by  intelligent 
people  everywhere.  It  is  the  purpose  of  this  intro- 
ductory chapter  chiefly  to  point  out  how  it  is  that  the 
Mormon  system  can  make  an  appeal  that  will  reach 
good,  conscientious  people,  and  then  show  by  the  facts 
of  their  history  how  the  acceptance  of  the  Mormon 
creed  gradually  eliminates  the  Christian  element  until 
an  outward  form  is  substituted  for  the  inward  grace. 
Secret  prayer,  love  for  the  Bible,  real  devotion  to 
Christ,  and  a  concern  for  the  lost  and  the  perishing 
around  have  gradually  faded  out  of  their  lives,  so  that 
the  children  born  to  them  after  they  became  Mormons 
have  scarcely  the  remnants  left  of  the  piety  of  their 
parents. 

The  confirmation,  as  it  is  termed,  exercises  a  great 
influence  upon  the  Mormon  disciple.  Imagine  two  or 
three  strong,  vital  men  placing  their  hands  upon  the 
head  of  a  subject  wrought  up  to  nervous  excitement  by 


THE    MORMON    PROBLEM  25 

impassioned  appeals  and  weakened  perhaps  by  fasting 
and  internal  conflict.  They  begin  by  preaching  him  a 
sermon  on  the  solemnity  of  the  occasion,  the  vast  impor- 
tance of  this  confirmation  ceremony,  the  new  responsi- 
bilities he  is  about  to  assume.  They  tell  him  by  what 
he  may  recognize  the  entrance  of  the  Spirit.  He  will, 
they  declare,  hear  a  voice,  he  will  see  an  angel  de- 
scending from  heaven,  or  more  frequently  he  will  feel 
strange  tinglings  go  through  him.  Then  the  elders  begin 
to  pray,  their  hands  still  resting  on  the  subject's  head. 
Soon,  to  his  excited  imagination,  a  voice  is  heard  or  a 
celestial  form  appears,  while  through  his  frame  curious 
pricklings  and  shivers  run. 

Hypnotic  suggestion  begins  its  work,  and  the  subject 
charged  with  animal  magnetism  from  human  batteries 
often  sees  what  it  is  willed  for  him  to  see.  This  expe- 
rience constitutes  the  strongest  hold  the  church  has 
upon  its  converts.  It  is  called  their  "testimony," 
and  a  vast  amount  of  exposed  hypocrisy  and  evidence 
of  fraud  are  needed  to  shake  the  belief  of  the  convert 
that  the  Spirit  has  entered  him.  "  Brother,"  one  Mor- 
mon said  to  me,  "  don't  I  know  I  received  the  Holy 
Ghost  ?      Why,  I  felt  it  clear  down  to  my  very  toes. ' '  l 

1  Brother  Cowdy,  the  presiding  elder,  then  called  upon  two  other  elders  to 
assist  him  in  the  confirmation. 

One  of  the  ladies  took  off  her  bonnet  but  retained  her  seat,  when  all  three 
of  the  elders  placed  their  hands  upon  her  head,  and  one  of  them  said  : 

"  Martha,  by  virtue  of  the  authority  vested  in  us,  we  confirm  you  a  member 
of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints  ;  and  as  you  have  been  obe- 
dient to  the  teachings  of  the  elders,  and  have  gone  down  into  the  waters  of 
baptism  for  the  remission  of  your  sins,  we  confer  upon  you  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  that  it  may  abide  with  you  forever,  and  be  a  lamp  unto  your  feet  and 
a  light  upon  your  pathway,  leading  and  guiding  you  into  all  truth.  This 
blessing  we  confirm  upon  your  head,  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the 
Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.     Amen." 

Then  before  they  took  their  hands  from  her  head,  the  presiding  elder 
asked  the  other  two  if  they  wished  to  say  anything.  Whereupon  one  of 
them  began  to  invoke  a  blessing  upon  the  newly  confirmed  sister.  He  spoke 
for  some  time  with  extreme  earnestness,  when  suddenly  he  was  seized  with  a 
nervous  trembling  which  was  quite  perceptible,  and  which  evidently  betokened 
intense  mental  or  physical  excitement.  He  began  to  prophesy  great  things 
for  this  sister  in  the  future,  and  in  solemn  and  mysterious  language  proclaimed 
the  wonders  which  God  would  perform  for  her  sake.    When  we  consider  the  ex- 


26  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

The  leaders  in  the  Mormon  Church,  however,  are 
not  Christian  men  in  any  proper  sense.  They  are  am- 
bitious, selfish,  crafty  men,  adepts  at  wire-pulling. 
This  can  hardly  be  wondered  at. 

I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  there  is  no  political 
orifice  in  the  country,  from  county  sheriff  to  president, 
that  offers  larger  opportunities  for  power,  wealth,  and 
ambition  than  do  the  high  places  of  the  Mormon 
Church.  Both  its  system  of  government  and  the  blind 
obedience  it  imposes  upon  its  devotees  offer  tempting 
openings  to  unscrupulous  men.  The  absolute  com- 
mand over  the  movements  of  its  followers,  even  to  the 
extent  of  ordering  them  as  colonists  to  distant  States, 
or  as  missionaries  to  distant  lands,  invests  leadership 
with  the  arrogance  of  intoxicating  power.  And  the  in- 
stitution by  which  every  Mormon  renders  up  yearly  at 
the  tithing-house  a  tenth  of  his  produce  and  earnings 
to  be  applied  for  the  good  of  the  church  somehow  has 
resulted  in  enriching  the  hierarchy.  The  expenditure 
of  this  money  is  in  its  hands  and  no  accounting  is  re- 
quired. 

These  statements  may  aid  somewhat  in  explaining 
the  missionary  zeal  of  many  of  the  young  men  who 
make  such  great  personal  sacrifices  to  go  abroad  on 
missions.  Two  or  three  simple  facts  will  illuminate  the 
subject  a  little  at  least. 

i.  They  are  only  asked  to  go  two  or  three  years,  so 
that  at  the  best  their  sacrifice  is  a  very  brief  one. 

2.  To  have  gone  thus  on  a  mission  is  the  condition 
of  preferment  when  they  return  home  ;  and  the  meas- 

cited  state  of  her  mind,  and,  if  the  statements  of  psychologists  be  true,  the 
magnetic  currents  which  were  being  transmitted  from  the  sensitive  nature  of 
the  man  into  the  excited  brain  of  the  new  convert,  together  with  the  pressure 
of  half  a  dozen  human  hands  upon  her  head,  it  is  not  at  all  astonishing  that 
when  the  hands  were  lifted  off  she  should  firmly  believe  that  she  had  been 
blessed  indeed.  She  had  been  told  that  she  should  receive  the  gift  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  ;  and  she  did  not  for  an  instant  doubt  that  her  expectations  had 
been  realized. —  T.  B.  H.  Stenhouse,  in  "  Tell  it  All,"  p.  31. 


THE    MORMON    PROBLEM  2.J 

ure  of  their  success  abroad,  that  is  the  number  and  the 
quality  of  their  converts,  will  determine  to  some  extent 
the  size  and  the  value  of  the  "plums"  within  their 
reach  when  they  return. 

3.  Since  the  success  of  the  whole  church,  that  is, 
the  position  and  wealth  and  power  of  the  leaders  in 
Zion,  depends  upon  the  number  and  the  quality  of 
the  proselytes, — every  new  proselyte  adding  one-tenth 
of  his  earnings  every  year  as  long  as  he  lives  to  the 
pocket-books  or  the  material  resources  of  the  leaders, — 
they  can  easily  afford  to  make  it  very  much  to  the  in- 
terest of  the  bright  young  men  to  vie  with  each  other 
both  in  the  preparation  to  go,  and  in  the  apparent  great 
sacrifices  they  shall  make  in  going,  for  both  of  these 
things  count  very  much  in  the  final  success  of  their 
mission. 


CHAPTER  II 

AUTHENTICITY    OF    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON 

THE  Book  of  Mormon  gives  the  name  to  the  people 
who  accept  it,   the  Mormons,  and  in  a  peculiar 
way  lies  at  the  foundation  of  the  Mormon  Church. 

The  book  was  first  published  in  March,  1830,  and 
the  next  month,  April  6,  the  Mormon  Church  was 
organized  with  six  members,  having  at  the  foundation 
of  their  creed,  faith  in  the  Book  of  Mormon  as  the 
word  of  God,  though  not  rejecting  the  Bible  : 

We  consider  the  Bible,  Book  of  Mormon,  Book  of  Doctrine 
and  Covenants,  Pearl  of  Great  Price,  and  Sayings  of  Joseph  the 
Seer,  our  guides  in  faith  and  doctrine.  The  first  four  have  been 
adopted  as  such  by  a  vote  of  the  saints  in  general  conference.1 

We  believe  the  Bible  to  be  the  word  of  God,  as  far  as  it  is  trans- 
lated correctly  ;  we  also  believe  the  Book  of  Mormon  to  be  the 
word  of  God.2 

This  book,  however,  is  very  appropriately  called  the 
"  Mormon  Bible  "  because  its  friends  claim  that  it  not 
only  has  several  advantages  over  our  Bible,  as  we  shall 
see  later,  but  that  it  is  the  Bible  especially  designed  for 
this  Western  Continent,  which  is  the  promised  heritage, 
and  to  be,  by  and  by,  controlled  by  the  Mormon  Church. 
And  then,  in  addition,  this  book  announces  the  doc- 
trine of  "present  revelation,"  which  gives  the  divine 
sanction  to  their  claims  for  the  other  three  books  men- 
tioned— "  Book  of  Doctrines  and  Covenants,"  "  Pearl 

1  From  preface  of  "  A  Compendium  of  the  Doctrines  of  the  Gospel." 

2  Art.  8  of  "  Articles  of  Faith." 
28 


AUTHENTICITY    OF    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON      29 

of  Great  Price,"  and  "  Sayings  of  Joseph  the  Seer" — 
all  of  which  are  "present  revelations." 

The  fact  is  the  "Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter^ 
Day  Saints"  grew  up  out  of  the  Book  of  Mormon. 
It  is,  as  the  prophet  Joseph  aptly  puts  it,  "  the  keystone 
of  our  religion."  The  whole  superstructure  of  Mor- 
monism  rests  upon  this  foundation,  and  must  stand  or 
fall  with  it.  If  the  Book  of  Mormon  is  proved  a  fraud, 
then  the  whole  thing  was  conceived  in  a  fraud,  and 
Joseph  Smith  was  an  impostor.  His  claims  to  be  a 
prophet  of  the  Lord  rest  upon  and  are  bound  up  in  the 
question,  "  Is  the  Book  of  Mormon  from  God?  " 

There  are  two  stories  as  to  the  origin  of  the  book. 
I  will  call  them  the  Mormon  story  and  the  Gentile 
story. 

1.  The  Mor?no?i  Story.  The  Mormons  believe  that 
this  book  contains  an  inspired  record  or  history  of  three 
different  colonies  that  came  over  from  the  old  world  to 
this  country  in  ancient  times,  and  lived  and  flourished 
here  for  a  period  of  twenty-five  hundred  years.  It  is 
divided  into  fifteen  books,  after  the  method  of  the 
Bible.  The  next  to  the  last  book,  called  the  Book  of 
Ether,  contains  the  earliest  record. 

This  book  tells  us  of  a  party  numbering  between 
twenty  and  thirty,  under  the  direction  of  the  brother  " 
of  Jared,  leaving  Asia  at  the  command  of  God,  about 
one  hundred  years  after  the  flood,  just  after  the  con- 
fusion of  tongues,  as  related  in  the  book  of  Genesis. 
They  embarked  in  eight  strangely  constructed  arks  or 
barges,  and  after  drifting  three  hundred  and  forty-four 
days  across  the  Atlantic  Ocean  they  landed  upon  this 
North  American  Continent,  where  they  and  their  de- 
scendants remained  for  fifteen  hundred  years,  became 
very  numerous,  spread  over  the  greater  portion  of  the 
continent,  and  developed  a  somewhat  advanced  civili- 
zation.     But  dividing  into  two  powerful  parties  or  na- 


30  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

tions,  able  to  muster  and  thoroughly  equip  an  army  of 
two  million  soldiers  each,  they  became  involved  in  a 
fierce  war  of  extermination,  which  resulted  in  the  entire 
annihilation  of  both  nations,  leaving  the  country  a  deso- 
late waste,  one  man  alone  surviving  the  terrible  destruc- 
tion, whose  name  was  Coriantumr. 

About  the  time  this  terrible  war  was  desolating  North 
America,  a  second  party,  made  up  of  two  families,  Lehi 
and  Ishmael,  leave  the  city  of  Jerusalem  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  reign  of  Zedekiah,  King  of  Judah,  six 
hundred  years  before  Christ,  and  after  wandering  eight 
years  in  the  desert  of  Arabia,  embark  in  a  ship  of 
peculiar  construction,  drift  across  the  Indian  and  the 
Pacific  Oceans,  and  land  upon  the  southwestern  shore 
of  South  America.  These  two  families  having  inter- 
married, begin  rapidly  to  multiply.  Within  twenty 
years,  however,  they  also  divided  into  two  rival  nations, 
known  for  a  thousand  years  afterward  as  the  Nephites 
and  the  Lamanites,  named  from  the  two  brothers  Nephi 
and  Laman,  who  led  in  the  quarrel  and  divided  the  two 
families. 

About  nine  years  after  Lehi  and  his  company  leave 
Jerusalem,  a  third  party,  headed  by  one  of  King  Zede- 
kiah's  sons,  also  leaves  Jerusalem,  crosses  the  ocean, 
and  settles  in  the  land  of  Zarahemla,  somewhere  in 
the  northern  coasts  of  South  America. 

After  four  hundred  years  they  are  accidentally  dis- 
covered by  a  party  of  Nephites,  who  are  traveling  north- 
ward ;  and  after  a  time  the  two  nations  become  one 
under  the  old  title  of  Nephites.  All  these  peoples  rap- 
idly increase  ;  the  Lamanites  eventually  covering  the 
entire  South  American  Continent,  while  the  Nephites 
gradually  extend  northward  until  the  greater  portion 
of  North  America  is  occupied  by  them. 

The  Book  of  Mormon,  with  the  exception  of  the 
single  book  of  Ether  already  mentioned,  is  the  professed 


AUTHENTICITY    OF   THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON      3 1 

history  of  these  two  peoples.  The  Lamanites,  at  the 
very  beginning  of  their  separate  history,  were  cursed 
by  the  Almighty  with  a  "skin  of  blackness,"  became  a 
wild,  ignorant,  ferocious  people,  and  the  ancestors  of 
the  present  Indian  races.  The  Nephites  are  repre- 
sented as  God's  greatest  favorites,  enjoying  advantages 
and  favors  such  as  no  other  people  under  heaven  ever 
enjoyed,  furnishing  a  list  of  kings,  judges,  prophets, 
apostles,  and  martyrs  such  as  have  never  been  found 
upon  earth  in  any  age  or  country.  Christian  churches 
were  organized,  baptism  by  immersion  administered, 
and  all  the  blessings  and  privileges  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment dispensation  enjoyed,  with  the  peculiar  gifts  of 
speaking  with  tongues,  prophesying,  performing  mira- 
cles, and  such  like,  hundreds  of  years  before  the  ap- 
pearance of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  flesh. 

A  few  days  after  Jesus'  crucifixion,  resurrection,  and 
ascension  in  Judea,  he  appeared  to  his  people  upon  this 
continent  in  his  human  body,  and  remained  here  forty 
days,  preaching,  performing  miracles,  ordaining  twelve 
apostles,  and  otherwise  establishing  the  faith  of  his  peo- 
ple. A  few  years  later  the  whole  country  is  reported 
converted — the  entire  population  of  both  continents,  the 
Lamanites  of  South  America,  and  the  Nephites  of  North 
America,  are  enrolled  in  Christian  churches.  For  nearly 
two  hundred  years  a  complete  millennium  is  enjoyed. 
The  arts  of  war  being  forgotten,  peace,  purity,  and  relig- 
ious culture  are  universal.  But  increased  wealth  and 
prosperity  bring  religious  declension,  and  by  and  by 
apostasy  from  the  faith.  The  apostates  assume  the  old 
name  of  Lamanites,  and  their  old  hatred  of  religion  and 
religious  people.  This  opposition  increases  in  numbers 
and  in  power,  until  war,  relentless  and  cruel,  again  fills 
the  land  with  bloodshed  and  desolation.  This  results, 
in  the  year  a.  d.  384,  in  the  complete  destruction  of 
the  Nephites  and  all  there  was  left  of  the  religious  ele- 


32  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

ment,  leaving  the  infidel  Lamanites,  who  had  already 
become  wild,  barbarous,  and  bloodthirsty,  in  full  pos- 
session of  both  continents,  where  they  were  found  upon 
the  discovery  of  America  by  Columbus. 

Now,  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  Nephite  forces 
was  a  prophet  by  the  name  of  Mormon.  Before  this 
exterminating  war  had  ended,  Mormon  gathered  up  all 
the  records  of  his  predecessors,  the  kings  and  prophets 
and  judges,  who  had  been  inspired  of  God  to  write 
either  history  or  prophecy,  or  vision  or  exhortation, 
and  made  a  careful  abridgment  of  their  writings  down 
to  his  own  time,  and  engraved  this  abridged  record 
upon  golden  plates.  These  plates  he  turned  over  to 
his  son  Moroni,  who  commanded  one  division  of  the 
Nephite  army  under  his  father.  This  son  finished  his 
father's  record,  and  when  completed,  hid  the  whole  in 
the  sacred  hill  Cumorah,  near  Palmyra,  New  York. 
There  they  remained  fourteen  hundred  years,  until  dis- 
covered by  the  prophet  Joseph  Smith,  and  were  by  him 
translated  into  our  language. 

This  accounts  for  the  name  of  the  book,  the  Book 
of  Mormon,  while  the  book  gives  the  name  to  the 
people,  the  Mormons.  Moroni  was  raised  from  the 
dead  in  the  form  of  an  angel  for  the  special  purpose  of 
showing  Mr.  Smith  where  said  plates  had  been  hidden, 
and  assisting  him  in  translating  them  into  our  language. 

On  May  8,  1838,  Joseph  Smith,  when  asked,  "How 
and  where  did  you  obtain  the  Book  of  Mormon?" 
gave  this  answer  : 

Moroni,  who  deposited  the  plates  (from  whence  the  Book  of 
Mormon  was  translated),  in  a  hill  in  Manchester,  Ontario  County, 
New  York,  being  dead  and  raised  again  therefrom,  appeared  unto 
me,  and  told  me  where  they  were,  and  gave  me  directions  how  to 
obtain  them.  I  obtained  them,  and  the  Urim  and  Thummim  with 
them,  by  means  of  which  I  translated  the  plates.  And  thus  came 
the  Book  of  Mormon. 

"Compendium,"  p.  305. 


AUTHENTICITY    OF   THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON      33 

2.    The  Gentile  Story.      But  there  is  another  story  as  * 
to  the  origin  of  this  book. 

The  Gentile  account  is  quite  different.  It  tells  that 
a  certain  worn-out  Presbyterian  minister  by  the  name 
of  Solomon  Spalding,  living  in  northern  Ohio,  be- 
tween the  years  1810  and  18 15,  became  deeply  inter- 
ested in  a  study  of  ancient  America,  on  account  of  cer- 
tain famous  mounds  found  in  his  locality,  giving  evi- 
dence that  there  must  have  existed  upon  this  continent 
in  former  times  a  race  of  people  quite  superior  to  the 
Indian  races  found  here  upon  the  discovery  of  America. 
He  conceived  the  idea  of  writing  an  imaginary  history 
of  this  people  which  would,  at  the  same  time,  account 
for  the  existence  of  the  Indian  races.  He  gave  to  his 
romance  the  title  :    "  The  Manuscript  Found." 

Spalding  failed  as  a  preacher,  and  failed  at  black- 
smithing,  and  became  greatly  embarrassed  with  debts 
which  he  hoped  to  liquidate  by  the  proceeds  of  this 
fascinating  story  of  ancient  America.  But  he  could 
not  find  a  printer  in  Ohio  willing  to  publish  it  at  his 
own  risk.  And  so,  in  quest  of  a  printer,  he  went  to 
Pittsburg,  Pa. ,  to  a  good  Presbyterian  by  the  name  of 
Patterson.  But  he  was  unable  to  persuade  Patterson 
to  undertake  the  printing,  and  the  preacher  gave  up  in 
despair,  left  his  manuscript  in  Mr.  Patterson's  print- 
ing office,  removed  to  the  State  of  New  York,  and 
died  two  years  later.  He  left  Pittsburg  about  the  year 
1814. 

Seven  years  later  a  Baptist  preacher  by  the  name  of 
Sidney  Rigdon,  afterward  one  of  the  pioneers  of  Mor- 
monism,  came  to  Pittsburg  and  was  pastor  there  for 
nearly  two  years.  He  was  well  acquainted  with  Mr.  Pat- 
terson's partner,  and  made  the  printing  office  his  loafing 
place.  One  day  he  discovered  Mr.  Spalding's  dis- 
carded manuscript,  covered  with  rubbish  and  dust,  read 
and   reread  it,  becoming  deeply  interested  in  it.      We 

c 


34  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

have  several  reliable  witnesses  thus  far,  but  none  of 
them  are  able  to  tell  whether  Mr.  Rigdon  copied  it  or 
not.  This  is  not  material,  for  Mr.  Rigdon  had  a  good 
memory.  After  the  latter  was  excluded  from  the  Bap- 
tist church  for  heterodoxy,  he  remained  in  Pittsburg 
for  some  time,  ostensibly  to  study  the  Bible,  really  to 
hatch  out  and  perfect  a  new  system  of  theology,  which 
for  several  years  thereafter  he  proclaimed  under  the  wing 
of  Alexander  Campbell,  who  had  just  begun  his  great 
work  in  this  country.  He  was,  however,  watching  his 
opportunity  to  blossom  out  into  a  reformer  after  his 
own  ideals. 

Some  time  between  the  years  1823  and  1825  Mr. 
Rigdon,  as  the  account  relates,  heard  of  Joseph  Smith 
as  a  rising  "  fortune-teller  and  money  digger,"  and  im- 
mediately decided  that  Smith  was  the  man  he  had  been 
waiting  for.  He  hunted  him  up  and  together  they 
concocted  the  whole  plan  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  and 
the  kind  of  a  church  they  should  found  upon  it. 

Mr.  Rigdon  put  into  Mr.  Smith's  hands  the  mate- 
rials for  the  new  Bible.  Smith  took  the  materials  thus 
furnished  him,  got  a  lot  of  tin  plates,  covered  them 
over  with  bronze  so  as  to  look  like  old  gold  (perhaps  I 
should  say  that  the  very  existence  of  plates  is  stoutly 
denied  by  some — as  Mr.  Smith  never  allowed  any  one 
to  see  them  j  but  my  method  is  to  accept  the  Mormon 
statement  as  far  as  I  possibly  can),  scratched  upon 
them  certain  characters  that  would  give  the  appearance 
of  hieroglyphics — and  then  hid  them  in  a  large  hill 
about  one  and  a  half  miles  from  his  home,  called  in 
Mormon  literature  the  sacred  hill  "  Cumorah." 

In  due  time  Smith  had  a  vision  of  an  angel  who 
told  him  about  the  wonderful  treasure  hid  in  the  hill, 
and  after  some  years'  delay,  in  1827,  he  went,  dug  out 
the  plates,  and  proceeded  to  translate  them. 

It  is  but   candor  to   confess   that   there  are  several 


Sidney  Rigdon 


Page  34 


AUTHENTICITY    OF    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON      35 

accounts  of  how  Mr.  Smith  came  into  possession  of  the 
material  out  of  which  was  evolved  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon. Some  authorities  are  very  positive  that  Mr. 
Smith  got  possession  of  the  Spalding  manuscript  after 
Mr.  Rigdon  had  discovered  and  digested  it.  The 
statement  is  that  some  years  after  the  death  of  her  hus- 
band, Mrs.  Spalding  secured  the  old  ' '  Manuscript 
Found"  from  Pittsburg;  and  for  safe-keeping  depos- 
ited it,  with  other  manuscripts  of  her  late  husband,  in 
an  old  trunk  which  was  stored  away  in  her  barn  ■  that 
Joseph  Smith  hired  out  to  a  neighboring  farmer  for  a 
brief  period,  and  managed  to  steal  the  manuscript  from 
the  trunk.  The  evidence  is  not  conclusive  upon  this 
portion  of  the  game  so  skillfully  played  by  Smith  and 
Rigdon.  However,  if  they  really  needed  the  manu- 
script, after  Rigdon' s  digestion  of  it,  they  were  shrewd 
enough  to  get  it  by  some  means. 

I  should  also  state  that  the  Mormon  Church  has 
been  so  exceedingly  anxious  to  quash  the  strong  indict- 
ment against  the  divinity  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  fur- 
nished by  the  Spalding  manuscript  theory,  that  a  few 
years  ago  (1886)  they  happened,  by  a  strange  fortune, 
to  come  into  possession  of  a  real,  genuine  Solomon 
Spalding  manuscript,  and  forthwith  they  published  it  as 
the  real  "Manuscript  Found,"  and  proclaimed  to  the 
world  the  complete  annihilation  of  the  Gentile  story  of 
the  origin  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  because  this  manu- 
script has  nothing  whatever  in  common  with  the  Book 
of  Mormon,  not  even  so  much  as  one  proper  name. 
And  if  this  was  the  real  "Manuscript  Found,"  the 
Gentile  story  would  certainly  have  to  be  abandoned,  so 
far,  at  least,  as  Mr.  Spalding  is  concerned.  But  unfor- 
tunately for  the  Mormon  side,  there  are  at  least  three 
very  stubborn  facts  : 

1.  That  Mr.  Spalding  wrote  several  manuscripts. 
Of  this  fact  we  have  most  abundant    testimony  from 


36  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

members  of  his  household,  from  boarders  in  his  family, 
from  his  business  partner,  and  from  neighbors,  who 
lived  in  the  same  community  with  him  for  years. 

2.  That  the  title  to  this  new  "find"  was  not  "The 
Manuscript  Found,"  it  was  "Manuscript  Story"  ;  but 
the  authorities  in  Salt  Lake  City  substituted  "Manu- 
script Found  "  for  the  real  title,  putting  the  "  Manu- 
script Found"  on  the  title-page  and  on  the  top  of 
every  page  in  the  book. 

3.  But  the  most  stubborn  fact  is,  that  the  real 
"  Manuscript  Found  "  did  contain  the  same  outline  of 
history,  the  same  names  of  men  and  of  cities  as  are 
now  found  in  the  Book  of  Mormon. 

While  Mr.  Spalding  was  writing  his  "  Manuscript 
Found"  in  Conneaut,  Ohio,  he  became  so  much  inter- 
ested in  his  story  that  he  used  to  read  what  he  had 
written  to  members  of  his  household,  his  business  part- 
ner, and  to  friends  and  neighbors  who  would  drop  in 
of  an  evening  or  on  the  Sabbath.  Chapter  after  chap- 
ter was  thus  read  and  commented  upon  until  the  entire 
neighborhood  became  more  or  less  familiar  with  the 
outline  of  his  story,  and  especially  with  the  peculiar 
names  that  he  invented  for  his  heroes,  his  kings  and 
warriors  and  prophets,  etc.  And  when  some  twenty 
years  afterward  the  Book  of  Mormon  made  its  appear- 
ance in  that  neighborhood,  these  people  were  aston- 
ished and  confounded  to  find  in  it  the  same  old  story 
of  Nephite  and  Lamanite  history,  with  Lehi,  Lemuel, 
Jacob,  Enos,  Alma,  Heleman,  and  all  the  other  princi- 
pal characters  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  precisely  the  same 
as  they  had  heard  Mr.  Spalding  read  to  them  twenty 
years  before.      I   have   myself   read    sworn   affidavits x 

1  The  following  by  John  Spalding,  a  brother  of  Solomon  Spalding,  is  a  speci- 
men of  these  affidavits.  After  a  brief  account  of  his  brother's  early  life,  he 
says : 

"  1  made  him  a  visit  three  years  after,  and  found  that  he  had  failed,  and  was 
considerably  involved  in  debt.     He  then  told  me  he  had  been  writing  a  book, 


AUTHENTICITY    OF    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON      3/ 

from  not  less  than  ten  of  these  persons,  all  reputable 
citizens,  who  could  not  easily  have  been  deceived. 
Such  testimony  as  this  cannot  easily  be  set  aside. 

Nor  could  a  fourth  fact  be  set  aside,  if  there  were 
space  and  time  to  present  it,  that  the  Book  of  Mormon 
contains  a  large  amount  of  matter  that  Mr.  Spalding 
did  not  put  into  his  "Manuscript  Found"  ;  and  that 
this  additional  matter  is  largely  "Rigdonism,"  pure 
and  simple.  The  brevity  of  the  present  treatise  will 
not  permit  an  intelligent  and  clear  presentation  of  this 
important  and,  to  the  Mormon,  very  stubborn  fact. 
But  any  one  who  will  carefully  sift  out  of  the  Book  of 
Mormon  its  theological  teachings,  and  compare  them 
with  the  published  statements  of  Mr.  Rigdon's  preach- 
ing and  theological  controversies  during  the  years  1822- 
1830  would  find  most  conclusive  evidence  of  the  state- 
ment I  have  made. 

Apostle  Orson  Pratt  states  an  important  point  thus 
tersely  : 

This  book  must  be  either  true  or  false.  If  true,  it  is  one  of  the 
most  important  messages  ever  sent  from  God  to  man,  affecting 
both  the  temporal  and  eternal  interests  of  every  people  under 

which  he  intended  to  have  printed,  the  avails  of  which  he  thought  would  ena- 
ble him  to  pay  all  his  debts.  The  book  was  entitled  *  The  Manuscript  Found,' 
of  which  he  read  to  me  many  passages.  It  was  a  historical  romance  of  the 
first  settlers  of  America — endeavoring  to  show  that  the  American  Indians  are 
the  descendants  of  the  Jews,  or  the  lost  tribes.  It  gave  a  detailed  account  of 
their  journey  from  Jerusalem,  by  land  and  sea,  till  they  arrived  in  America, 
under  the  command  of  Nephi  and  Lehi.  They  afterward  had  quarrels  and 
contentions  and  separated  into  two  distinct  nations,  one  of  which  he  denomi- 
nated Nephites  and  the  other  Lamanites.  Cruel  and  bloody  wars  ensued,  in 
which  great  multitudes  were  slain.  They  buried  their  dead  in  large  heaps, 
which  caused  the  mounds,  so  common  in  this  country.  Their  arts,  sciences, 
and  civilizations,  were  brought  into  view  in  order  to  account  for  all  the  curious 
antiquities  found  in  various  parts  of  North  and  South  America. 

"I  have  recently  read  the  Book  of  Mormon,  and,  to  my  great  surprise,  / 
found  nearly  the  same  historical  matters,  names,  etc.,  as  they  were  in  my 
brother  s  writings.  I  well  remember  that  he  wrote  in  the  old  style,  and 
commenced  about  every  sentence  with,  •  And  it  came  to  pass,'  or,  '  Now,  it 
came  to  pass,'  the  same  as  in  the  Book  of  Mormon,  and  according  to  the  best 
of  my  recollection  and  belief,  it  is  the  same  as  my  brother  wrote,  with  the 
exception  of  the  religious  matter.  By  what  means  it  has  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  Joseph  Smith,  Jun.,  I  am  unable  to  determine. 

John  Spalding  ' 


38  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

heaven  to  the  same  extent  and  in  the  same  degree  that  the  mes- 
sage of  Noah  affected  the  inhabitants  of  the  old  world.  If  false, 
it  is  one  of  the  most  cunning,  wicked,  bold,  deep-laid  impositions 
ever  palmed  upon  the  world  ;  calculated  to  deceive  and  ruin  mil- 
lions who  will  sincerely  receive  it  as  the  word  of  God,  and  will 
suppose  themselve  securely  built  upon  the  rock  of  truth  until 
they  are  plunged,  with  their  families,  into  hopeless  despair.  .  . 

If,  after  a  rigid  examination,  it  be  found  an  imposition,  it  should 
be  extensively  published  to  the  world  as  such.  The  evidence  and 
arguments  upon  which  the  imposture  was  detected  should  be 
clearly  and  logically  stated,  that  those  who  have  been  sincerely, 
yet  unfortunately,  deceived  may  perceive  the  nature  of  the  decep- 
tion and  be  reclaimed,  and  that  those  who  continue  to  publish  the 
delusion  may  be  exposed  and  silenced.1 

We  accept  this  conclusion  of  Apostle  Pratt  and  pro- 
pose to  furnish  every  honest  inquirer  after  truth  abun- 
dant materials  for  just  this  kind  of  personal  "  rigid  ex- 
amination," by  the  most  direct  and  the  only  satisfac- 
tory method  of  reaching  a  conclusion,  and  that  is  by 
examining  the  book  itself. 

The  first  objection  to  the  book  to  be  considered  is 
this  :  //  has  no  trace  of  God' s  hand  upon  it;  no  di- 
vine stamp.  Everything  about  it  is  human,  very,  very 
human. 

The  ground  taken  is  this  :  God  stamps  his  perfec- 
tions upon  everything  he  undertakes.  Whether  he 
creates  a  mountain  or  an  insect,  whether  a  blade  of 
grass  or  a  drop  of  water,  he  displays  a  wisdom  entirely 
beyond  the  reach  of  imperfect  men.  He  makes  no 
blunders — never  has  to  go  back  and  do  his  work  over 
again.      "  All  his  works  praise  him." 

And  so  the  marks  of  divinity  should  be  seen  upon 
God's  written  word.  Whether  he  records  a  history, 
utters  a  prophecy,  or  inspires  a  proverb  or  a  psalm,  he 
should  do  it  in  a  way  that  will  be  true  to  himself. 
Every  thought  that  expresses  his  thought  should  be  as 

1  Introduction  to  "Divine  Authenticity  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,"  pages 
124, 125. 


AUTHENTICITY    OF    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON      39 

pure  "as  silver  purified  seven  times."  And  hence  it 
is  found  that  a  careful  examination  of  the  Bible  reveals 
a  multitude  of  characteristics  not  found  in  any  merely 
human  production.      Let  us  note  one  or  two. 

Let  us  take  the  matter  of  character  reading.  We 
may  read  in  the  Bible  a  few  statements  concerning  the 
patriarch  Abraham.  Probably  four  or  five  pages  tell  us 
all  we  know  about  Abraham  ;  and  yet  we  are  won- 
drously  well  acquainted  with  him,  his  character  stands 
out  prominently  in  history,  his  record  has  told  with 
recognized  power  upon  the  whole  religious  life  of  the 
world.  He  is  the  father  of  the  faithful.  Can  you  se- 
lect any  prominent  character  in  profane  history,  whom 
you  know  so  well,  even  with  ten  times  the  reading  ?  A 
dozen  verses  in  the  New  Testament  tell  us  all  we  know 
of  the  traitor  Judas  Iscariot,  and  yet  what  traitor  upon 
earth  has  been  more  thoroughly  execrated  !  Twenty 
verses  in  2  Chronicles,  the  twenty-eighth  chapter,  give 
us  so  clear  and  comprehensive  a  view  of  the  real  char- 
acter of  King  Ahaz  and  the  sad  results  of  his  life  that 
it  is  doubtful  if  any  large  volume  of  merely  human  his- 
tory has  ever  exceeded  it.  And  the  same  might  be 
said  of  every  attempt  to  portray  character  in  the  Bible. 
A  few  verses  will  usually  suffice  to  draw  out  a  man's 
character  to  the  very  life,  and  yet  there  will  be  nothing 
in  the  narrative  that  gives  the  least  impression  of  studied 
brevity  or  any  apparent  effort  at  condensation.  On 
the  contrary,  the  style  will  be  found  to  be  simplicity 
itself.  And  the  secret  of  this  strange  power  seems  to 
be  the  wonderful  ability  to  select  for  record  only  those 
incidents  that  reveal  the  man  most  perfectly. 

The  same  thing  may  be  seen  in  the  history  of  the 
Bible. 

The  life  and  character  and  times  of  the  most  remark- 
able and  important  personage  that  has  ever  appeared 
on  earth,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  is,  by  Matthew,  beau- 


40  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

tifully  and  clearly  exhibited  in  the  small  compass  of 
thirty-one  printed  pages.  And,  be  it  remembered,  Mat- 
thew was  an  unlettered  man,  not  at  all  used  to  writing. 
This  book  was  his  first  and  last  attempt,  so  far  as  we 
know. 

Luke,  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  has  furnished  us 
in  thirty-three  pages  a  history  of  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant religious  movements  the  world  has  ever  wit- 
nessed— a  movement  that  revolutionized  the  religious 
thought  of  the  world.  And,  in  fact,  this  wonderful 
comprehensiveness,  combined  with  the  most  artless 
simplicity,  this  strange  tact  at  compression  without  a 
seeming  effort  at  compression,  this  unapproachable 
ability  to  say  a  great  deal  in  a  few  plain,  simple  words 
prevails  all  through  the  Bible.  It  would  appear  to  be 
God's  way  of  writing,  precisely  what  we  might  expect 
from  a  being  of  infinite  perfection.  We  may  safely 
challenge  all  the  doctors  of  divinity,  or  skilled  writers 
of  the  present  age,  to  crowd  into  ten  pages  every 
thought  and  sentiment  and  inference  the  Apostle  Paul, 
with  the  greatest  grace  and  simplicity,  puts  into  one 
page. 

Look  at  the  discourses  of  our  Lord,  any  one  of 
them,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  for  instance  :  Surely 
"never  man  spake  like  this  man."  The  first  eight 
sentences  of  that  Sermon  on  the  Mount  are  by  univer- 
sal consent  placed  above  any  other  eight  sentences  ever 
spoken  by  mortal  lips.  Friend  and  foe,  infidel,  athe- 
ist, and  Christian  have  from  the  first  acknowledged  that 
these  verses  stand  alone  amid  all  the  literature  of  earth, 
unapproached  and  unapproachable,  not  more  in  their 
comprehensiveness  and  sublimity  than  in  their  beauti- 
ful simplicity  : 

Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit  :  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven. 

Blessed  are  the  meek  :  for  they  shall  inherit  the  earth. 


AUTHENTICITY    OF    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON      4 1 

Blessed  are  they  that  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness  :  for 
they  shall  be  filled. 

Blessed  are  the  merciful  :  for  they  shall  obtain  mercy. 
Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart :  for  they  shall  see  God,  etc.,  etc. 

It  would  be  easy  to  multiply  illustrations  of  this 
thought,  for  the  whole  Bible  is  an  illustration. 

And  now  let  us  turn  briefly  and  yet  carefully  and 
honestly  apply  these  tests  of  divinity  to  the  Book  of 
Mormon.  If  God  inspired  its  pages,  there  should  be 
some  plain,  internal  evidences  of  the  fact. 

Opening  the  book  at  random  let  us  turn  to  page  249 
and  read  the  following  : 

And  now  I  say  unto  you,  that  this  is  the  order  after  which  I  am 
called  ;  yea,  to  preach  unto  my  beloved  brethren  ;  yea,  and  every 
one  that  dwelleth  in  the  land  ;  yea,  to  preach  unto  all,  both  old 
and  young,  both  bond  and  free  ;  yea,  I  say  unto  you,  the  aged, 
also  the  middle  aged,  and  the  rising  generation  ;  yea,  to  cry  unto 
them  that  they  must  repent  and  be  born  again  ;  yea,  thus  saith 
the  spirit,  repent,  all  ye  ends  of  the  earth,  for  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  soon  at  hand  ;  yea,  the  Son  of  God  cometh  in  his  glory, 
in  his  might,  majesty,  power,  and  dominion.  Yea,  my  beloved 
brethren,  I  say  unto  you,  that  the  spirit  saith,  behold  the  glory  of 
the  king  of  the  earth  ;  and  also  the  king  of  heaven  shall  very 
soon  shine  forth  among  all  the  children  of  men  ;  and  also  the 
spirit  saith  unto  me,  yea,  crieth  out  unto  me  with  a  mighty  voice, 
saying,  go  forth  and  say  unto  this  people,  repent,  for  except  ye 
repent  ye  can  in  nowise  inherit  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

What  has  the  author  said  in  all  these  one  hundred 
and  eighty-seven  words  ?     Only  this  : 

I  am  commissioned  by  the  spirit,  speaking  in  thunder  tones,  to 
preach  repentance  and  the  new  birth  to  my  brethren,  and  to  all 
the  people  of  the  land,  because  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand, 
when  the  Son  of  God,  king  of  earth  and  heaven,  cometh  in  majesty 
and  glory.1 

Once  more  read,  page  352  : 

1  Fifty-one  instead  of  one  hundred  and  eighty-seven  words. 


42  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

Now,  I  unfold  unto  you  a  mystery  ;  nevertheless,  there  are 
many  mysteries  which  are  kept  that  no  one  knoweth  them,  save 
God  himself.  But  I  show  unto  you  one  thing,  which  I  have  in- 
quired diligently  of  God,  that  I  might  know,  that  is  concerning 
the  resurrection.  Behold,  there  is  a  time  appointed  that  all  shall 
come  forth  from  the  dead.  Now,  when  this  time  cometh,  no  one 
knows  ;  but  God  knoweth  the  time  which  is  appointed.  Now, 
whether  there  shall  be  one  time,  or  a  second  time,  or  a  third  time, 
that  men  shall  come  forth  from  the  dead,  it  mattereth  not,  for  God 
knoweth  all  these  things  ;  and  it  sufhceth  me  to  know  that  this  is 
the  case  ;  that  there  is  a  time  appointed  that  all  shall  rise  from 
the  dead.  Now,  there  must  needs  be  a  space  betwixt  the  time  of 
death,  and  the  time  of  the  resurrection. 

And  now  I  would  inquire  what  becometh  of  the  souls  of  men 
from  this  time  of  death  to  the  time  appointed  for  the  resurrection  ? 
Now,  whether  there  is  more  than  one  time  appointed  for  man  to 
rise,  it  mattereth  not ;  for  all  do  not  die  at  once  :  and  this  matter- 
eth not ;  all  is  as  one  day  with  God,  and  one  time  only  is  measured 
unto  men  ;  therefore,  there  is  a  time  appointed  unto  men  that  they 
shall  rise  from  the  dead  ;  and  there  is  a  space  between  the  time  of 
death  and  the  resurrection.  And  now  concerning  this  space  of 
time,  what  becometh  of  the  souls  of  men  is  the  thing  which  I  have 
inquired  diligently  of  the  Lord  to  know  ;  and  this  is  the  thing  of 
which  I  do  know  ;  and  when  the  time  cometh  when  all  shall  rise, 
then  shall  they  know  that  God  knoweth  all  the  times  which  are 
appointed  unto  men.  Now,  concerning  the  state  of  the  soul  be- 
tween death  and  the  resurrection.  Behold,  it  has  been  made 
known  unto  me,  by  an  angel,1  that  the  spirits  of  all  men,  as  soon 
as  they  are  departed  from  the  mortal  body,  yea,  the  spirits  of  all 
men,  whether  they  be  good  or  evil,  are  taken  home  to  that  God 
who  gave  them  life. 

In  the  above  passage  there  are  three  hundred  and 
sixty-five  words.  But  before  inquiring  as  to  their  mean- 
ing it  may  be  well  to  apply  a  very  simple  condenser.     If 

1  How  completely  this  supposed  prophet  Alma  gives  himself  away  in  this 
assertion  of  angelic  inspiration  may  be  seen  when  it  is  learned  that  precisely 
this  statement  as  to  departed  spirits  was  found  in  substance  in  that  portion  of 
the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  that  Alma  had  in  his  possession  (page  310)  and 
had  carefully  studied  all  his  life  ! 

Upon  pages  10  and  24  we  are  explicitly  informed  that  the  BRASS  plates 
brought  over  to  this  country  from  Jerusalem  contained  all  that  our  Old  Testa- 
ment contains  up  to  the  reign  of  King  Zedekiah  (600  b.  c.)  Many  a  time, 
therefore,  had  he  read  in  Eccl.  12  :  7,  and  in  several  other  places,  the  substance 
of  the  statement  which  he  here  asserts  had  been  made  known  to  him  by  an 
angel !  ! 


AUTHENTICITY    OF    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON      43 

we  should  ignore  the  author's  language  and  his  unnat- 
ural arrangement,  treating  of  the  resurrection  before 
he  treats  of  the  intermediate  state,  we  might  put  his 
thoughts  in  a  very  brief  compass,  somewhat  as  follows  : 

There  are  many  mysteries  known  only  to  God ;  but,  having 
earnestly  asked  him,  he  has  revealed  to  me  through  an  angel  the 
following  glorious  facts  : 

First — that  the  spirits  of  all  men,  good  and  evil,  when  they  de- 
part from  this  mortal  body,  are  immediately  taken  home  to  the 
God  who  gave  them  life. 

Second — as  to  the  time  of  the  final  resurrection  from  the  dead  ; 
it  is  not  known  to  us  whether  all  are  to  be  raised  at  the  same  time, 
or  at  different  times  ;  but,  when  it  finally  occurs,  then  we  shall 
know  that  God  knew  all  about  it. 

But  let  us  quote  a  better  specimen  from  a  better 
author:  The  Book  of  Mormon  tells  us  that  Jesus,  a 
few  days  after  his  ascension,  as  recorded  in  the  New 
Testament,  appeared  here  upon  this  continent  and 
spent  some  forty  days  with  his  people,  performing  mira- 
cles and  preaching  to  them  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom. 
A  large  portion  of  his  addresses,  during  this  period,  is 
made  up  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  various  other 
extracts  from  the  four  Gospels.  But  he  adds  some  new 
matter,  enough  to  show  how  vast  the  chasm  between 
what  he  said  here  upon  this  continent  and  what  he  said 
in  the  land  of  Judea,  especially  in  the  one  point :  its 
comprehensiveness. 

The  first  selection  is  a  single  sentence,  a  rather  long 
one,  and  somewhat  mixed  in  its  construction,  but  never- 
theless is  recorded  as  an  actual  speech  from  the  lips  of 
him  who  spake  as  never  man  spake  : * 

And  behold  this  is  the  thing  which  I  will  give  unto  you  for  a 
sign,  for  verily  I  say  unto  you,  that  when  these  things  which  I 
declare  unto  you  and  which  I  shall  declare  unto  you  hereafter  of 
myself,  and  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  shall  be  given 


44  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

unto  you  of  the  Father,  shall  be  made  known  unto  the  Gentiles, 
that  they  may  know  concerning  this  people,  who  are  a  remnant 
of  the  house  of  Jacob,  and  concerning  this  my  people,  who  shall 
be  scattered  by  them  ;  verily,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  when  these 
things  shall  be  made  known  unto  them  of  the  Father,  and  shall 
come  forth  of  the  Father,  from  them  unto  you,  for  it  is  wisdom  in 
the  Father  that  they  should  be  established  in  this  land,  and  be  set 
up  as  a  free  people  by  the  power  of  the  Father,  that  these  things 
might  come  forth  from  them  unto  a  remnant  of  your  seed,  that  the 
covenant  of  the  Father  may  be  fulfilled  which  he  has  covenanted 
with  his  people,  O  house  of  Israel ;  therefore,  when  these  works, 
and  the  works  which  shall  be  wrought  among  you  hereafter,  shall 
come  forth  from  the  Gentiles  unto  your  seed,  which  shall  dwindle 
in  unbelief  because  of  iniquity  ;  for  thus  it  behooveth  the  Father 
that  it  should  come  forth  from  the  Gentiles,  that  he  may  show  forth 
his  power  unto  the  Gentiles,  for  this  cause,  that  the  Gentiles,  if 
they  will  not  harden  their  hearts,  that  they  may  repent  and  come 
unto  me,  and  be  baptized  in  my  name,  and  know  of  the  true  points 
of  my  doctrine,  that  they  may  be  numbered  among  my  people,  O 
house  of  Israel ;  and  when  these  things  come  to  pass,  that  thy 
seed  shall  begin  to  know  these  things,  it  shall  be  a  sign  unto  them, 
that  they  may  know  that  the  work  of  the  Father  hath  already  com- 
menced, unto  the  fulfilling  of  the  covenant  which  he  hath  made 
unto  the  people  who  are  of  the  house  of  Israel. 

This  sentence  contains  over  three  hundred  and  forty 
words.  The  words  "  that  "  and  "which  "  are  repeated 
twenty  times;  the  words  "I,"  "my"  and  "me," 
eleven  times  ;  the  word  "  Father, ' '  eight  times  ;  "  Gen- 
tiles," five  times;  the  expression,  "  shall  come  forth," 
four  times.  All  this  in  one  sentence.  A  very  remark- 
able sentence  surely  ! 

We  find  upon  examination  that  in  Christ's  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,  beginning  at  the  first  sentence,  three 
hundred  and  forty  words  include  eighteen  complete 
sentences,  an  average  of  nineteen  words  to  the  sentence. 
All  Jesus'  sentences  found  in  the  New  Testament  are 
short  and  incisive.  The  longest  we  have  been  able  to 
find  is  this  : 

Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neigh- 
bour, and  hate  thine  enemy.    But  I  say  unto  you,  Love  your  ene- 


AUTHENTICITY    OF    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON      45 

mies,  bless  them  that  curse  you,  do  good  to  them  that  hate  you, 
and  pray  for  them  which  despitefully  use  you  and  persecute  you  ; 
that  ye  may  be  the  children  of  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  : 
for  he  maketh  his  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil  and  on  the  good,  and 
sendeth  rain  on  the  just  and  on  the  unjust. 

We  will  close  this  chapter  with  a  few  selections  of  a 
different  character,  but  designed  to  illustrate  still  further 
the  peculiar  style  and  the  mental  calibre  of  our  author. 
It  will  scarcely  be  necessary  to  comment  at  length 
upon  the  extracts  ;  they  will   ' '  speak  for  themselves. ' ' 

The  angel  who  is  supposed  to  have  formulated  the 
English  words  and  sentences  of  the  Book  of  Mormon 
as  they  appeared  one  by  one  upon  Mr.  Smith's  "  Urim 
andThummim,"  or  his  "  Peep  Stone,"  was  very  like 
human  authors  ;  he  had  certain  pet  words  or  forms  of 
expression  that  are  constantly  recurring.  For  instance, 
the  word   "more,"   or   "  the  more  part. " 

The  following  are  a  few  of  a  large  number  of  ex- 
amples : 

Wherefore  these  plates   are  for  the  more  part  of  the  ministry  ; 

and  the  other  plates  are  for  the  more  part  of  the   reign  of  the 

kings,  and  the  wars,  etc.1 

For  a  more  history  part  are  written  upon  mine  other  plates.2 

And  thus  the  more  part  of  the  year  did  pass  away.3 

But  behold,  there  was  a  more  great  and  terrible  destruction  in 

the  land  northward.4 

And  yet  they  did  deny  the  more  parts  of  his  gospel.5 

And  a  more  short  but  a  true  account  was  given  by  Nephi.6 

And  they  did  cause   a  great  contention   in  the  land,  insomuch 

that   the  ?nore  righteous  part  of  the   people,  although   they  had 

nearly  all  become  wicked  ;  yea,  there  were  but  few  righteous  men 

among  them.7 

This  last  sentence  is  incomplete,  as  well  as  barbarous 
in  its  grammatical  construction. 

The  most  frequent   expression    in  the  book   is  the 

IP.  18.  2  p.  68.        3P.  494-         4P-495  5  P   546.        6  P.  487 

7  Pp   447.  448. 


46  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

phrase,  "And  it  came  to  pass,"  and  the  exclamation, 
"Behold!"  It  does  almost  appear  that  the  author 
had  a  large  stock  of  these  expressions  on  hand  and  was 
anxious  to  unload  them  upon  every  possible  occasion. 
We  find  them  upon  every  page  ;  they  begin  every 
paragraph  and  almost  every  sentence.  Mark  Twain 
says  if  you  take  them  out  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  there 
will  be  nothing  left  to  "  come  to  pass. "  But  friend 
Twain  is  mistaken,  "the  more  part  "  of  the  book  will 
still  be  left.  And  yet  in  the  first  chapter  of  the  book, 
containing  ten  pages,  we  find  these  two  forms  of  ex- 
pression repeated  seventy-nine  times,  "Behold"  thirty, 
' '  And  it  came  to  pass ' '  forty-nine  times.  And 
this  is  continued  through  the  book,  the  last  five  pages 
of  the  book  of  Ether  containing  the  one  expression, 
"And  it  came  to  pass,"   thirty-nine  times  ! 

The  little  word  "thereof"  is  also  made  to  do  duty 
in  a  large  number  of  places,  thrown  in  promiscuously 
sometimes,  apparently  without  regard  to  the  necessities 
of  the  sentence.  A  blundering  attempt,  evidently,  to 
imitate  the  phraseology  of  the  Bible,  though  not  always 
successful. 

And  great  and  terrible  was  the  battle  thereof,  yea,  great  and 
terrible  was  the  slaughter  thereof.1 

And  he  fastened  it  upon  the  end  of  a  pole  thereof.2 

The  word  "insomuch  "  is  also  a  favorite,  frequently 
occurring,  and  used  in  such  a  variety  of  senses  as  to 
raise  the  suspicion  that  the  angel  who  inspired  it  must 
have  had  a  very  limited  vocabulary,  and  hence  had  to 
make  a  single  word  cover  a  large  field. 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  after  they  had  bound  me,  insomuch 
that  I  could  not  move,  the  compass  which  had  been  prepared  of 
the   Lord,  did  cease  to  work,  wherefore  they  knew  not  whither 

1  P.  485  2  P-  37°- 


AUTHENTICITY    OF    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON      47 
they  should  steer  the  ship,  insomuch  that  there   arose  a   great 


storm.1 

And  they  durst  not  spread  themselves  upon  the  face  of  the 
land,  insomuch  that  they  could  raise  grain,  lest  the  Nephites 
should  come  upon  them  and  slay  them.2 

In  a  similar  way  he  makes  an  unfortunate  choice  of 
other  words.      For  instance,  the  word   ' '  flatter ' '  : 

.  .  .  that  they  might  by  some  means  flatter  them  out  of  their 
strongholds,  that  they  might  gain  advantage  over  them.3 

.  .  .  therefore  he  was  about  to  flatter  away  those  people  to 
rise  up  in  rebellion  against  their  brethren.4 

The  words  ' '  enormity ' '  and  ' '  beloved ' '  are  in  the 
same  way  misapplied. 

And  also  seeing  the  enormity  of  their  number,  Teancum  thought 
it  was  not  expedient  to  attack  them.5 

.  .  .  our  prisoners  were  so  numerous,  that  notwithstanding  the 
enormity  of  our  numbers.6 

.  .  .  these  our  dearly  beloved  brethren,  who  have  so  dearly  be- 
loved us.7 

Now  when  Ammon  and  his  brethren  saw  this  work  of  de- 
struction among  those  who  they  so  dearly  beloved,  and  among 
those  who  had  so  dearly  beloved  them.8 

Our  angel  had  never  studied  English  grammar  care- 
fully. Witness  the  following,  selected  from  a  multitude 
of  similar  blunders  : 

Yea,  if  my  days  could  have  been  in  them  days.   .   . 
But  behold,  I  am  consigned  that  these  are  my  days.9 
I  say  Jew,  because  I  mean  them,  from  whence  I  came.10 
And  they  having  been  waxed  strong  in  battle,  that  they  might 
not  be  destroyed.11 

We  did  arrive  to  the  promised  land.12 

Even  until  they  had  arriven  to  the  land  of  Middoni.13 

1  P.  46.  2  p.  484.  3  p.  392.  4  P.   429.  &  P.  391.  6  p.  408. 

"  P.  311.  8  p.  31S.  9  p.  449.  10  p.  I27. 

11  P.  260.  12  P.  43.  13  P.  297. 


48  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

And  the  one  who  was  the  most  foremost  among  them,  said  unto 

them.1 

And  were  marching  through  the  most  capital  parts  of  the  land.2 
And  again,  my  brethren,  I  would  cite  your  minds  forward  to 

the  time  when  the  Lord  God  gave  these  commandments  unto  his 

children.3 


This  angel  often  takes  back  what  he  has  said,  or 
changes  the  sense  so  that  the  inquiry  forces  itself  upon 
the  reader,  "Which  portion  of  the  sentence  is  inspired 
of  God  ?  "  If  the  first  statement  was  inspired  of  God, 
the  second  could  not  be. 

As  examples,  note  the  following : 

Nevertheless,  after  all  this,  I  never  have  known  much  of  the 
ways  of  the  Lord,  and  His  mysteries  and  marvellous  power.  I 
said  I  had  never  known  much  of  these  things  ;  but  behold  I  mis- 
take, for  1  have  seen  muck  of  His  mysteries  and  His  marvellous 
power. 4 

And  thus  we  see  that  they  buried  their  weapons  of  peace,  or 
they  buried  the  weapons  of  war,  for  peace.5 

They  being  shielded  fro?n  the  more  vital  parts  of  the  body,  or 
the  more  vital  parts  of  the  body  being  shielded  from  the  strokes 
of  the  Lamanites.6 

In  a  glowing  description  of  the  remarkable  reforma- 
tion that  occurred  soon  after  Christ's  professed  appear- 
ance here,  when  the  Lamanites,  as  well  as  the  Ne- 
phites,  were  all  converted,  our  author  is  made  by  his 
angel  to  say  : 

There  were  no  robbers,  nor  murderers,  neither  were  there 
Lamanites,  nor  any  manner  of  ites ;  but  they  were  in  one,  the 
children  of  Christ.7 

Here  is  another  : 
Now  immediately  when  the  Judge  had  been   murdered  ;   he 


1  P.   33O.  2  p.   43I.  Z  p.   272.  4  p.   262.  5  p.   308. 

6  P.  362.  7  p.  545. 


AUTHENTICITY    OF    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON      49 

being  stabbed  by  his  brother  by  a  garb  of  secrecy ;  and  he  fled, 
and  the  servants  ran  and  told  the  people.1 

A  "garb  of  secrecy"  is  surely  a  formidable  instru- 
ment with  which  to  stab  a  man  ! 

But  the  following  caps  the  climax  of  absurdities. 
Moroni  has  rent  his  coat,  and  taken  ' '  a  piece  thereof, 
and  wrote  upon  it,"  and  "fastened  it  upon  the  end 
of  a  pole  thereof,"   and  then  after  an  earnest  prayer  : 

He  went  forth  among  the  people,  waving  the  rent  of  his  gar- 
ment in  the  air,  that  all  might  see  the  writing  which  he  had  wrote 
upon  the  rent."1 

It  is  not  strange  that  a  man  of  meagre  literary  attain- 
ments, as  Joseph  Smith  confessedly  was,  and  whose  vo- 
cabulary was  limited  at  the  best,  and  largely  determined 
by  a  lifelong  association  with  the  uncultivated,  the 
humbler  class,  should  be  guilty  of  a  great  many  blun- 
ders in  composition,  should  make  use  of  ungrammatical 
and  inelegant  and  even  vulgar  expressions,  should 
often  choose  the  wrong  word  to  express  his  thought, 
and  thus  sometimes  be  made  to  say  what  he  did  not 
mean.  All  this  is  easily  understood  and  precisely  what 
we  might  expect  to  find  in  the  Book  of  Mormon,  if  we 
were  allowed  to  believe  what  the  first  edition  of  the 
book  plainly  and  unequivocally  stated  on  its  title-page, 
"Joseph  Smith,  author  and  proprietor,"  or  even  if  we 
were  allowed  to  accord  him  the  usual  latitude  of  a 
translator,  to  express  in  his  own  way  and  his  own  lan- 
guage the  thought  of  the  original.  Many  of  the  blun- 
ders in  expression  and  the  almost  innumerable  faults  of 
style  could  thus  be  easily  excused. 

But  Mr.  Smith  himself  and  the   eye-witnesses  allow 

1  P-  454- 

2  P.  371.  Like  the  Irisman's  hole  in  the  sand  bank,  which,  when  the  bank 
had  been  dug  away,  was  left  suspended  in  the  air  ! 

D 


50  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

us  no  such  opportunity  of  exercising  charity.  The 
statements,  as  we  shall  learn,  are  plain  and  positive  that 
the  English  sentences  were  not  of  Mr.  Smith's  con- 
struction, that  he  had  simply  to  look  through  his  Urim 
and  Thummim,  and  the  English  word  or  sentence  ap- 
peared in  full  view  already  formed.  Some  of  the  wit- 
nesses go  so  far  as  to  tell  us  that  occasionally  an  English 
word  would  appear  that  Joseph  Smith  did  not  know  and 
could  not  pronounce  correctly  and  would  therefore  have 
to  spell  it  out  letter  by  letter,  so  that  his  scribe  could 
make  no  mistake  in  transcribing  it ! 

The  graven  characters  would  appear  in  succession  to  the  seer, 
and  directly  under  the  character,  when  viewed  through  the  glasses, 
would  be  the  translation  in  English.  .  .  In  translating  the  char- 
acters, Smith,  who  was  illiterate  and  but  little  versed  in  biblical  lore, 
was  ofttimes  compelled  to  spell  the  -words  out,  not  knowing  the 
correct  pronunciation.  .  .  Cowdry,  however,  being  a  school- 
teacher, rendered  invaluable  aid  in  pronouncing  hard  words  and 
giving  them  their  proper  definition. x 

All  of  which,  as  we  can  see,  fastens  the  responsibility 
of  all  these  blunders,  these  various  sins  against  common 
sense  and  our  English  tongue,  upon  the  angel,  proving 
him  to  have  been  a  very  ignorant,  unsophisticated 
angel ;  in  fact,  precisely  such  a  person  as  to  his  mental 
caliber  and  his  educational  advantages  as  Mr.  Joseph 
Smith  himself  is  acknowledged  to  have  been. 

But  we  shall  find  other  proofs  that  this  angel  and 
Joseph  Smith  are  wonderfully  alike.  The  point  we 
have  sought  to  make  in  this  chapter  is,  that  the  Book 
of  Mormon  is  so  unspeakably  below  the  Bible  as  a  lit- 
erary production,  so  immeasurably  its  inferior,  that  by 
no  possible  stretch  of  the  imagination  can  we  conceive 
it  possible  that  the  two  were  inspired  by  the  same  all- 
controlling  mind.      That,   instead  of   meeting    the   re- 

1  David  Whitmer,  in  "  Deseret  Evening  News,"  December  24,  1885. 


AUTHENTICITY    OF    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON      5  I 

quirements  of  the  word  of  God,  "As  the  heavens  are 
higher  than  the  earth  so  are  my  ways  higher  than  your 
ways,  and  my  thoughts  than  your  thoughts, ' '  the  Book 
of  Mormon,  so  far  as  examined,  lets  us  down  to  the 
level  of  an  ignorant,  unlettered  man. 


CHAPTER  III 

MIRACLES    IN    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON 

THE  Bible  bears  no  comparison  to  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon, either  in  the  number  of  its  miracles  or  in 
their  strange,  unnatural  character.  A  few  samples  only 
can  be  noted. 

i.  Raiv  Meat  Made  Sweet.  A  little  affair,  too  unim- 
portant to  be  noticed,  were  it  not  that  it  flatly  contra- 
dicts a  rule  which  the  world  in  general,  and  all  biblical 
scholars  in  particular,  have  taken  for  granted  without  a 
question,  viz :  God  does  not  do  for  us  what  we  can  do 
for  ourselves — divine  aid  comes  in  only  where  the  ut- 
most of  human  effort  fails  to  reach.  On  page  40  of 
the  Book  of  Mormon  we  read  : 

And  after  I  had  made  a  bellows  that  I  might  have  wherewith 
to  blow  the  fire,  I  did  smite  two  stones  together,  that  I  might 
make  fire  ;  for  the  Lord  had  not  hitherto  suffered  that  we  should 
make  much  fire,  as  we  journeyed  in  the  wilderness  ;  for  he  said, 
I  will  make  thy  food  become  sweet,  that  ye  cook  it  not ;  and  I 
also  will  be  your  light  in  the  wilderness. 

Comment  upon  this  is  not  needful.  There  was  no 
lack  of  wood  for  fire  in  the  wilderness,  no  lack  of  stones 
to  smite  together,  but  simply  to  prove  to  them  that 
they  are  the  Lord's  special  pets,  he  saves  them  the 
trouble  of  making  fire  by  performing  the  prodigious 
miracle  of  making  raw  meat  sweet  and  palatable,  and 
of  furnishing  them  light  in  the  wilderness  for  their 
evening  entertainments. 

2.  Help  in  Hunting.  Of  a  similar  character  is  a  little 
52 


MIRACLES    IN    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON  53 

occurrence  related  just  before.1  It  is  usually  sup- 
posed that  a  little  common  sense  would  be  sufficient  to 
tell  a  man  who  had  spent  some  time  traveling  in  a  wild, 
mountainous  region,  about  where  he  would  naturally  go 
to  find  wild  game,  if  he  wished  to  hunt.  But  Nephi's 
god  is  so  unusually  good  to  him  that  he  takes  the 
trouble  to  write  the  directions  upon  the  pointers  in  a 
certain  ball,  called  the  "  Director,"  which  we  will  pres- 
ently explain. 

And  I  said  unto  my  father,  whither  shall  I  go  to  obtain  food  ? 
And  it  came  to  pass  that  I  did  enquire  of  the  Lord.  .  . 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  the  voice  of  the  Lord  said  unto 
me,  look  upon  the  ball,  and  behold  the  things  which  are  written. 
.  .  .  And  it  came  to  pass  that  I,  Nephi,  did  go  forth  up  into  the 
top  of  the  mountain,  according  to  the  directions  which  were  given 
upon  the  ball.  And  it  came  to  pass  that  I  did  slay  wild  beasts, 
insomuch  that  I  did  obtain  food  for  our  families  ;  and  it  came  to 
pass  that  I  did  return  to  our  tents,  bearing  the  beasts  which  I  had 
slain. 

3.    The  Brass  Director. 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  the  voice  of  the  Lord  spake  unto  my 
father  by  night,  and  commanded  him  that  on  the  morrow  he  should 
take  his  journey  into  the  wilderness.  And  it  came  to  pass,  that  as 
my  father  arose  in  the  morning  and  went  forth  to  the  tent  door,  to 
his  great  astonishment  he  beheld  upon  the  ground  a  round  ball  of 
curious  workmanship,  and  it  was  of  fine  brass.  And  within  the 
ball  were  two  spindles  ;  and  the  one  pointed  the  way  whither  we 
should  go  into  the  wilderness.'2 

Here  is  a  round  ball,  made  of  fine  brass,  and  within 
it  are  two  spindles,  one  of  which  points  out  constantly 
"the  way  whither  we  should  go  into  the  wilderness." 
Just  how  they  could  see  spindles  inside  of  a  round  brass 
ball  does  not  appear.  However,  as  it  was  of  curious 
workmanship,  this  may  have  been  one  of  the  curious 
things  about  it. 

1  P.  38.  2  p.  36. 


54  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

Those  two  spindles  were  certainly  curious  affairs. 
The  author  calls  them  spindles  here,  and  on  the  next 
page  he  calls  them  pointers. 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  I,  Nephi,  beheld  the  pointers  which 
were  in  the  ball,  that  they  did  work  according  to  the  faith,  and 
diligence,  and  heed  which  we  did  give  unto  them.  And  there 
was  also  written  upon  them  a  new  writing,  which  was  plain  to  be 
read,  which  did  give  us  understanding  concerning  the  ways  of  the 
Lord  ;  and  it  was  written  and  changed  from  time  to  time,  accord- 
ing to  the  faith  and  diligence  which  we  gave  unto  it.  And  thus 
we  see  that  by  small  means  the  Lord  can  bring  about  great  things.1 

Nephi' s  god  certainly  had  an  eye  to  convenience  in 
this  little  affair.  He  had  usually  taken  the  trouble  to 
send  an  angel  down  from  heaven,  or  come  himself,  to 
inform  Nephi  and  his  father  as  to  his  will  from  time  to 
time.  But  by  this  ingenious  mechanical  device  he  saves 
himself  any  further  trouble  in  that  matter.  One  of  the 
spindles  points  out  the  general  direction  they  are  to 
travel,  and  the  other  one  has  written  upon  it  directions 
for  special  occasions,  as  for  instance,  where  Nephi  shall 
find  a  deer  or  a  bear  or  a  wild  turkey  when  the  com- 
pany may  be  in  want  of  food  ;  the  directions  being 
"changed  from  time  to  time,  according  to  the  faith 
and  diligence  which  we  gave  unto  it." 

4.  The  Compass.  Another  ingenious  invention  called 
a  compass,  also  prepared  of  the  Lord,  had  the  peculiar 
quality  of  becoming  balky  and  refusing  to  work  when 
anything  was  done  against  the  Lord's  pet,  Nephi. 

While  on  their  trip  to  this  western  continent,  in  mid- 
ocean,  there  was  a  mutiny  on  shipboard.  Nephi 
preached,   and  his   two  brothers  did  not  like  it. 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  Laman  and  Lemuel  did  take  me  and 
bind  me  with  cords,  and  they  did  treat  me  with  much  harshness. 
And  it  came  to  pass  that  after  they  had  bound  me  insomuch 

1  P.  38. 


MIRACLES    IN    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON  55 

that  I  could  not  move,  the  compass  which  had  been  prepared  of 
the  Lord  did  cease  to  work,  therefore  they  knew  not  whither  they 
should  steer  the  ship,  insomuch  l  that  there  arose  a  great  storm, 
yea,  a  great  and  terrible  tempest,  and  were  driven  back  upon  the 
waters  for  the  space  of  three  days,  and  they  began  to  be  fright- 
ened exceedingly,  lest  they  should  be  drowned  in  the  sea  ;  never- 
theless they  did  not  loose  me. 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  we  were  about  to  be  swallowed  up  in 
the  depths  of  the  sea.  And  after  we  had  been  driven  back  upon 
the  sea  for  the  space  of  four  days,  my  brethren  began  to  see  that 
the  judgments  of  God  were  upon  them,  and  that  they  must  perish, 
save  that  they  should  repent  of  their  iniquities  ;  wherefore  they 
came  unto  me  and  loosed  the  bonds  which  were  upon  my  wrists. 

And  it  came  to  pass  after  they  had  loosed  me,  behold  I  took 
the  compass  and  it  did  work  whither  I  desired  it.  And  it  came 
to  pass  that  I  prayed  unto  the  Lord ;  and  after  I  had  prayed  the 
winds  did  cease  and  the  storm  did  cease,  and  there  was  a  great 
calm.2 

Strange  compass  surely  !  But  really  what  was  it  good 
for?  since  it  seemed  to  be  controlled  by  a  man  on 
board  the  ship  and  not  by  magnetic  influence. 

5.  The  Lamanites1  Curse.  This  is  claimed  to  have 
occurred  in  immediate  connection  with  the  separation 
between  Nephi  and  his  two  brothers,  Laman  and  Lem- 
uel, and  the  organization  of  the  two  infant  but  rival 
nations  already  referred  to,  between  twenty  and  thirty 
years  after  leaving  Jerusalem. 

The  miracle  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
of  the  ages,  settling  one  of  the  mooted  questions  of 
four  hundred  years'  standing  :  "How  came  the  Ameri- 
can Indian  with  a  dark  skin  ? ' '  (The  American  In- 
dian is  the  reputed  descendant  of  the  Lamanites.) 

Nephi  tells  us  that  his  two  brothers,  with  their  fami- 
lies, because  of  their  opposition  to  Nephi,  and  their 
general  depravity,   became  the    subjects  of  a  peculiar 


1  Just  how  their  inability  to  steer  the  ship  produced  this  terrific  storm  is  not 
explained.     Probably  the  author  mistook  the  meaning  of  "  insomuch." 

2  P.  46.  3  p.   72. 


56  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

For  behold  they  had  hardened  their  hearts  against  him,  that 
they  had  become  like  unto  a  flint ;  wherefore  as  they  were  white, 
and  exceeding  fair  and  delightsome,  that  they  might  not  be  entic- 
ing unto  my  people,  the  Lord  God  did  cause  a  skin  of  blackness 
to  come  upon  them.  And  thus  saith  the  Lord  God,  I  will  cause 
that  they  shall  be  loathsome  unto  thy  people,  save  they  shall  re- 
pent of  their  iniquities.  And  cursed  shall  be  the  seed  of  him 
that  mixeth  with  their  seed  ;  for  they  shall  be  cursed  even  with 
the  same  cursing.     And  the  Lord  spake  it  and  it  was  done. 

It  is  strange  what  peculiar  favorites  of  heaven  this 
Nephi  and  his  people  were,  that  God  should  be  willing, 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  removing  temptation  from 
them,  "  that  they  might  not  be  enticing  unto  my  peo- 
ple," to  curse  his  own  brothers  with  a  skin  of  black- 
ness. It  is  something  God  never  did  for  any  other 
people  under  heaven.  He  never  exhibited  such  tender 
care  for  the  Jews  in  the  Old  Testament  history.  The 
New  Testament  furnishes  no  incidents  of  this  charac- 
ter. The  early  Christians,  in  their  best  and  purest 
days,  had  no  such  favors  shown  them.  And,  so  far  as 
we  can  learn,  the  Lord  has  never  "caused  a  skin  of 
blackness  to  come  upon"  any  Gentiles  of  modern 
times,  to  prevent  their  "becoming  enticing  to  my  peo- 
ple,"   the  Latter-day  Saints. 

If  there  could  be  anything  more  silly  or  preposterous 
than  this,  it  is  found  on  page  480,  occurring  over  five 
hundred  years  after  the  above  : 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  those  Lamanites  who  had  united  with 
the  Nephites  were  numbered  among  the  Nephites,  and  their  curse 
was  taken  from  them,  and  their  skin  became  white  like  unto  the 
Nephites  :  and  their  young  men  and  their  daughters  became  ex- 
ceeding fair,  and  they  were  numbered  among  the  Nephites,  and 
were  called  Nephites. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  in  these  last  days  the  Mormons' 
god  is  not  so  kind.  The  "  Latter-day  Saints "  have 
not  been  able  to  furnish  the  world  with  a  single  speci- 


MIRACLES    IN    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON  5/ 

men  of  the  bleaching  power  of  conversion  upon  the 
skin,  though  strenuously  insisting  that  miracles  should 
be  expected  now  as  of  yore. 

6.  He  Could  not  be  Hit.  Here  is  a  prophet,  Samuel 
by  name,  who  can?iot  be  hit. 

But  as  many  as  there  were  who  did  not  believe  in  the  words  of 
Samuel  were  angry  with  him,  and  they  cast  stones  at  him  upon 
the  wall,  and  also  many  shot  arrows  at  him  as  he  stood  upon  the 
wall ;  but  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  was  with  him,  insomuch  that 
they  could  not  hit  him  with  their  stones,  neither  with  their  arrows. 
Now  when  they  saw  this,  that  they  could  not  hit  him,  there  were 
many  more  who  did  believe  on  his  words,  insomuch  that  they 
went  away  unto  Nephi  to  be  baptized.1 

A  somewhat  peculiar  method  of  conversion  !  But 
how  is  it  that  so  many  good  Mormons  in  our  day  can 
be  hit?  The  Utah  penitentiary,  Carthage  jail,  and 
Missouri  experiences  all  prove  that  in  modern  times 
faithful  Mormons  can  be  hit.  Is  it  for  lack  of  faith,  or 
for  a  lack  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  ? 

7.  JarecV s  Ba?'ges.  The  building  of  Noah's  ark  is 
cast  quite  into  the  shade  by  the  feat  of  Jared's  brother 
and  his  company,  who  built  eight  barges  or  vessels,  all 
"according  to  the  instructions  of  the  Lord."  2 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  the  brother  of  Jared  did  go  to  work, 
and  also  his  brethren,  and  built  barges  after  the  manner  which  they 
had  built  according  to  the  instructions  of  the  Lord.  And  they 
were  small,  and  they  were  light  upon  the  water,  even  like  unto 
the  lightness  of  a  fowl  upon  the  water  ;  and  they  were  built  after 
a  manner  that  they  were  exceeding  tight,  even  that  they  would 
hold  water  like  unto  a  dish  ;  and  the  bottom  thereof  was  tight 
like  unto  a  dish  ;  and  the  sides  thereof  were  tight  like  unto  a 
dish  ;  and  the  ends  thereof  were  peaked  ;  and  the  top  thereof 
was  tight  like  unto  a  dish  ;  and  the  length  thereof  was  the  length 
of  a  tree  ;  and  the  door  thereof,  when  it  was  shut,  was  tight,  like 
unto  a  dish. 

l  P.  473-  -  P.  576. 


58  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

When  they  are  finished  the  brother  of  Jared 

Cried  unto  the  Lord  saying,  O  Lord,  I  have  performed  the  work 
which  thou  hast  commanded  me,  and  I  have  made  the  barges  ac- 
cording as  thou  hast  directed  me. 

Please  note  that  they  are  built  exactly  "according  to 
the  instructions  of  the  Lord."  But  lo  and  behold, 
the  Lord  had  forgotten  two  very  important  matters  ! 

(i)  No  ventilation  has  been  provided — as  tight  as  an 
egg-shell ;  and  so  the  brother  of  Jared  informs  the 
Lord  of  the  omission. 

And  also  we  shall  perish,  for  in  them  we  cannot  breathe,  save 
it  is  the  air  which  is  in  them  ;  therefore  we  shall  perish.  And  the 
Lord  said  unto  the  brother  of  Jared,  Behold,  thou  shalt  make  a 
hole  in  the  top  thereof,  and  also  in  the  bottom  thereof;  and  when 
thou  shalt  suffer  for  air,  thou  shalt  unstop  the  hole  thereof,  and 
receive  air.  And  if  it  be  so  that  the  water  come  in  upon  thee,  be- 
hold ye  shall  stop  the  hole  thereof,  that  ye  may  not  perish  in  the 
flood.  And  it  came  to  pass  that  the  brother  of  Jared  did  so  ac- 
cording as  the  Lord  had  commanded. 

The  exact  object  of  the  hole  in  the  bottom  does  not 
clearly  appear,  nor  is  it  stated  how  they  are  to  get  air 
to  breathe  when  the  waves  are  breaking  over  them  so 
fiercely  that  they  have  to  close  the  hole  at  the  top  ;  for 
the  sequel  tells  us  positively  : 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  they  were  many  times  buried  in  the 
depths  of  the  sea,  because  of  the  mountain  waves  which  broke 
upon  them,  and  also  the  great  and  terrible  tempests  which  were 
caused  by  the  fierceness  of  the  wind. 

(2)  But  now  another  sad  deficiency  is  discovered  : 

And  again  he  cried  unto  the  Lord  saying,  O  Lord,  behold  I 
have  done  even  as  thou  hast  commanded  me  ;  and  I  have  pre- 
pared the  vessels  for  my  people,  and  behold  there  is  no  light  in 
them.  Behold,  O  Lord,  wilt  thou  suffer  that  we  shall  cross  this 
great  water  in  darkness  ? 


MIRACLES    IN    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON  59 

And  the  Lord,  apparently,  is  puzzled  to  know  how 
to  manage  this  matter.  Seemingly  he  has  reached  the 
limit  of  his  power,  and  so  he  asks  advice  of  the  brother 
of  Jared  : 

And  the  Lord  said  unto  the  brother  of  Tared,  What  will  ye  that 
I  should  do  that  ye  may  have  light  in  your  vessels  ?  For  behold, 
ye  cannot  have  windows,  for  they  will  be  dashed  to  pieces  ;  neither 
shall  ye  take  fire  with  you,  for  ye  shall  not  go  by  the  light  of  fire  ; 
for  behold,  ye  shall  be  as  a  whale  in  the  midst  of  the  sea ;  for  the 
mountain  waves  shall  dash  upon  you.  Nevertheless,  I  will  bring 
you  up  again  out  of  the  depths  of  the  sea ;  for  the  winds  have 
gone  forth  out  of  my  mouth,  and  also  the  rains  and  the  floods  have 
I  sent  forth.  And  behold,  I  prepare  you  against  these  things  ;  for 
howbeit,  ye  cannot  cross  this  great  deep,  save  I  prepare  you 
against  the  waves  of  the  sea,  and  the  winds  which  have  gone 
forth,  and  the  floods  which  shall  come.  Therefore  what  will  ye 
that  I  should  prepare  for  you  that  ye  may  have  light  when  ye  are 
swallowed  up  in  the  depths  of  the  sea? 

And  the  brother  of  Jared  was  quite  equal  to  the 
emergency.  He  was  evidently  a  man  of  remarkable 
resources.  He  went  up  into  a  very  high  mountain 
"and  did  moulten  out  of  a  rock  sixteen  small  stones, 
and  they  were  white  and  clear  even  as  transparent 
glass. ' ' 

And  those  sixteen  stones  he  presented  before  the 
Lord,  and  after  an  earnest  prayer,  in  which  he  informs 
the  Lord  of  his  ability  to  do  anything  he  pleases,  he 
says  : 

Therefore  touch  these  stones,  O  Lord,  with  thy  finger,  and  pre- 
pare them  that  they  may  shine  forth  in  the  darkness  ;  and  they 
shall  shine  forth  unto  us  in  the  vessels  which  we  have  prepared, 
that  we  may  have  light  while  we  shall  cross  the  sea. 

And  the  Lord  did  so,  and  touched  the  stones  one  by 
one  with  his  finger,  and  they  became  luminous  with 
light  and  shined  out  upon  the  sea,  and  were  placed 
two  in  each  barge,  one  at  each  end. 


60  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

SOME    INTERESTING    HISTORY    AND    OTHER    PUZZLES. 

King  Jacob  tells  us  on  page  135,  that 

A  hundredth  part  of  the  proceedings  of  this  people,  which  now 
began  to  be  numerous,  cannot  be  written  upon  these  plates,  but 
many  of  their  proceedings  are  written  upon  the  larger  plates,  and 
their  wars,  and  their  contentions,  and  the  reigns  of  their  kings. 

Fifty-five  years  before  this  statement,  Jacob's  father, 
Lehi,  left  Jerusalem  with  his  wife  and  four  boys,  all 
unmarried.  Another  family,  consisting  of  Ishmael  and 
wife,  two  sons,  and  several  daughters,  were  induced  to 
accompany  them.  One  other  man,  Zerum,  who  had 
been  a  slave  of  Laban,  made  up  the  total  number  of 
colonists. 

During  the  first  ten  years,  those  four  boys  and  the 
slave  appear  to  have  married  those  girls,  while  two 
other  boys,  Jacob  and  Joseph,  are  added  by  birth  to 
the  original  family  of  Lehi.  If  during  the  next  ten 
years  each  of  the  five  young  families  multiplies  as  rapidly 
as  possible,  we  cannot  count  more  than  from  thirty  to 
forty  young  children,  and  during  the  next  ten  years, 
the  third  decade,  the  largest  possible  increase  would  not 
reach  fifty  more  children.  So  that  at  the  end  of  thirty 
years  we  have  twelve  grown  people  and  from  seventy- 
five  to  ninety  children — of  whom  there  are  possibly 
from  ten  to  fifteen  who  have  reached  the  age  of  twenty 
years,  and  may  possibly  have  intermarried. 

It  was  during  this  last  decade,  between  twenty  and 
thirty  years  after  leaving  Jerusalem,  probably  about 
twenty-two  or  twenty-three  years  after,  when  there  was 
a  possible  population  of  between  fifty  and  sixty  persons, 
nearly  all  of  whom  are  small  children,  that  this  com- 
pany divides  into  two  nations.  The  two  oldest  brothers, 
Laman  and  Lemuel,  with  their  families,  and  the  two 
sons  of  Ishmael,  under  the  general  designation  of  Lam- 


MIRACLES    IN    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON  6 1 

anites,  remain  in  the  southern  portion  of  South  America, 
and  elect  a  king  !  while  the  remainder,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Nephi,  at  the  command  of  God,  strike  off  into 
the  wilderness  in  a  northerly  direction,  choose  Nephi  as 
their  king,  and  assume  the  name  of  Nephites  !  And 
before  the  first  thirty  years  have  expired,  that  is,  in 
about  seven  or  eight  years,  this  little  colony  has  sub- 
dued the  forests,  become  wealthy  in  flocks  and  herds, 
been  taught  by  Nephi  to 

Build  buildings  ;  and  to  work  in  all  manner  of  wood,  and  of 
iron,  and  of  copper,  and  of  brass,  and  of  steel  (?),  and  of  gold, 
and  of  silver,  and  of  precious  ores,  which  were  in  great  abundance. 

And  in  addition  to  all  this,  he  had  built  and  com- 
pleted a  temple  : 

And  I  did  construct  it  after  the  manner  of  the  temple  of  Solo- 
mon, save  it  were  not  built  of  so  many  precious  things  ;  for  they 
were  not  to  be  found  upon  the  land  ; l  wherefore,  it  could  not  be 
built  like  unto  Solomon's  temple.  But  the  manner  of  the  con- 
struction was  like  unto  the  temple  of  Solomon  ;  and  the  workman- 
ship thereof  was  exceeding  fine. 

Pretty  good  for  three  men  and  a  few  boys  !  Solo- 
mon's temple  was  seven  years  in  building,  and  required 
one  hundred  and  fifty-three  thousand  laborers  and 
thirty  thousand  overseers.2 

After  the  completion  of  this  magnificent  temple, 
Nephi  consecrated  his  two  youngest  brothers,  Jacob 
and  Joseph,  though  scarcely  more  than  twenty  years 
old,  to  the  office  of  the  priesthood  : 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  I,  Nephi,  did  consecrate  Jacob  and 
Joseph  that  they  should  be  priests  and  teachers  over  the  land  of 
my  people. 

1  He  has  all  manner  of  wood,  iron,  copper,  brass,  steel,  gold,  silver,  and 
precious  ores  in  great  abundance  :  precisely  what  "  precious  things "  he 
needed  aside  from  all  these,  does  not  clearly  appear. 

2  See  i  Kings  5  :  13-16 ;  6  :  37,  38. 


62  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

In  doing  this  he  directly  broke  two  very  plain  re- 
quirements of  the  Mosaic  law.  i.  That  none  but  the 
tribe  of  Levi  were  eligible  to  the  priesthood — these 
men  being  from  the  tribe  of  Manas seh.  2.  That  no 
one  should  be  permitted  to  discharge  the  duties  of  a 
priest  till  thirty  years  of  age.  We  should  remember, 
however,  that  this  small  nation  had  but  little  timber  as 
yet  to  select  from.  Nephi  himself  was  king  and  gen- 
eral high  priest — his  brother  Samuel  and  the  slave 
Zerum  were  the  subjects,  and  so  these  two  boys,  Jacob 
and  Joseph,  were  all  there  were  left  for  priests  except 
the  small  children  who  had  been  born  within  the  two 
previous  decades  ! 

It  is  during  the  next  twenty-five  years  that  these  two 
imposing  nations,  the  Nephites  and  the  Lamanites,  had 
so  many  wars  and  contentions,  shed  so  much  blood, 
and  made  so  much  history,  that  Jacob  tells  us  in  the 
passage  heretofore  quoted  that 

A  hundredth  part  of  the  proceedings  of  this  people  cannot  be 
written  upon  these  plates  !  and  that  many  of  their  proceedings  are 
written  upon  the  larger  plates,  and  their  wars,  and  their  conten- 
tions, and  the  reigns  of  their  kings. 

On  the  next  page  we  have  a  statement  that  needs  to 
be  read  with  the  same  large  allowance  for  exaggeration  : 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  many  means  were  devised  to  reclaim 
and  restore  the  Lamanites  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  ;  but  it 
all  were  in  vain,  for  they  delighted  in  wars  and  bloodshed,  and 
they  sought  by  the  power  of  their  arms  to  destroy  us  continually  ; 
wherefore,  the  Nephites  did  fortify  against  them  with  their  armies, 
and  with  all  their  might,  trusting  in  the  God  and  rock  of  their 
salvation. 

Big  talk  with  small  capital— for  not  over  fifty  men, 
grown  men,  could  have  been  found  in  that  entire  na- 
tion ! 

And  this  statement  about  the  Lamanites  seeking  to 


MIRACLES    IN    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON  63 

"destroy  us  continually,"  is,  to  say  the  least,  very  puz- 
zling. The  reader  will  bear  in  mind  that  Lehi  and  his 
company  landed  upon  the  western  coast  of  South 
America,  in  about  latitude  thirty  degrees  south,  not  far 
from  the  modern  city  of  Valparaiso,  in  Chili. 

The  course  that  Lehi  and  his  company  traveled  from  Jerusalem 
to  the  place  of  their  destination  : 

They  traveled  nearly  a  south  southeast  direction  until  they 
came  to  the  nineteenth  degree  of  north  latitude  ;  then,  nearly  east 
to  the  sea  of  Arabia,  then  sailed  in  a  southeast  direction  and 
landed  on  the  Continent  of  South  America,  in  Chili,  thirty  degrees 
south  latitude? 

Within  twenty  years  the  little  colony  divided  into  two 
nations  as  already  learned  ;  Nephi  and  his  company  fled 
into  the  wilderness,  journeying  to  the  northward  as 
supposed.2 

And  we  did  take  our  tents  and  whatsoever  things  were  possible 
for  us,  and  did  journey  in  the  wilderness  for  the  space  of  many 
days.  And  after  we  had  journeyed  for  the  space  of  many  days, 
we  did  pitch  our  tents.  And  my  people  would  that  we  should 
call  the  name  of  the  place  Nephi ;  wherefore  we  did  call  it 
Nephi. 

How  many  days'  journey,  or  how  far  they  traveled, 
we  are  not  informed.  But  we  learn  afterward  that  this 
city  Nephi  was  about  twenty  days'  journey  from  the 
land  or  the  city  of  Zarahemla.3  And  Zarahemla  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  situated  near  the  Isthmus,4  at  the 
extreme  north  end  of  the  continent.  So  that  begin- 
ning near  the  north  border  of  South  America  and 
traveling  southward  twenty  days'  journey,  perhaps  five 
hundred  miles,  we  must  reach  the  land  of  Nephi.     But 

1  "  Revelation  to  Joseph  the  Seer."     See  "  Compendium,"  p.  289. 

2  P.  70.  s  pp.  213;  2I8. 

4  The  land  of  Zarahemla  is  supposed  to  have  been  north  of  the  headwaters 
of  the  river  Magdalena,  its  northern  boundary  being  a  few  days'  journey  south 
of  the  Isthmus. — Footnote  in  Book  of  Mormon,  p.  ijtf,  by  Orson  Pratt. 


64  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

this  would  place  the  land  of  Nephi  more  than  two 
thousand  miles  north  of  the  original  settlement,  the 
home  of  the  Lamanites,  thirty  degrees  south  latitude, 
through  trackless  forests,  over  almost  impassable  moun- 
tain ranges  of  the  mighty  Andes,  whose  tablelands  often 
reach  an  altitude  of  fourteen  to  twenty  thousand  feet 
above  the  sea  level  !  And  yet,  we  are  asked  to  believe 
first,  that  this  handful  of  Lamanites  are  cursed  with  a 
black  skin,  in  order  that  they  may  not  be  enticing  to 
God's  pets,  the  Nephites,  who  have  placed  two  thou- 
sand miles  of  trackless  forests  and  monster  mountain 
barriers  between  the  two  nations  ;  and  then  secondly, 
we  are  asked  to  believe  that  these  Lamanites  are  con- 
tinually harassing  their  Nephite  brethren — hounding 
their  tracks,  and  watching  as  a  lion  for  his  prey,  ready 
upon  almost  a  moment's  notice  to  leap  two  thousand 
miles  upon  them,  so  that  the  people  of  Nephi  were 
obliged  to  "  fortify  against  them  with  their  armies"  ! 

But  we  shall  have  occasion  further  on  to  discuss 
more  at  length  the  geography  of  the  book. 

We  call  the  reader's  attention  to  a  curious  piece  of 
history,  that  claims  the  dignity  of  prophecy  ! 

The  old  man  Lehi,  imitating  the  example  of  the 
patriarch  Jacob,  calls  each  of  his  sons  before  him  to 
receive  his  dying  blessing.  When  he  comes  to  his 
youngest  son,  Joseph,  who  happens  to  be  the  namesake 
of  Joseph  in  Egypt,  and  also  of  the  great  modern  prophet 
Joseph  Smith — the  good  old  man  fairly  "boils  over" 
in  his  excess  of  blessing.  It  seems,  according  to  the 
Book  of  Mormon,  that  the  elder  Joseph,  of  Egyptian 
fame,  had  left  a  very  important  and  voluminous  pro- 
phecy in  reference  to  his  seed,  a  prophecy  that  reached 
down  to  the  latest  times,  including  in  its  wide  sweep 
not  only  Lehi  and  his  children,  especially  this  youngest 
son  Joseph — but  was  remarkably  full  in  regard  to  these 


MIRACLES    IN    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON  65 

latter  days  and  to  this  latest  scion,  the  author  and  pro- 
prietor of  the  Golden  Bible.  Among  other  things  this 
elder  Joseph  tells  Joseph  Lehi  the  following  about  his 
last  and  most  illustrious  namesake,  Joseph  Smith  : 1 

For  Joseph  truly  testified,  saying  :  A  seer  shall  the  Lord  my 
God  raise  up,  who  shall  be  a  choice  seer  unto  the  fruit  of  my  loins. 
Yea,  Joseph  truly  said,  thus  saith  the  Lord  unto  me.  A  choice 
seer  will  I  raise  up  out  of  the  fruit  of  thy  loins  ;  and  he  shall  be 
esteemed  highly  among  the  fruit  of  thy  loins.  .  .  And  I  will  make 
him  great  in  mine  eyes  ;  for  he  shall  do  my  work.  And  he  shall 
be  great  like  unto  Moses.   .   . 

"Wherefore  the  fruit  of  thy  loins  (Joseph  Smith)  shall  write  ; 
and  the  fruit  of  the  loins  of  Judah  (authors  of  the  Bible)  shall 
write  ;  and  that  which  shall  be  written  by  the  fruit  of  thy  loins, 
and  also  that  which  shall  be  written  by  the  fruit  of  the  loins  of 
Judah,  shall  grow  together,  unto  the  confounding  of  false  doc- 
trines.  .    . 

And  now,  behold,  my  son  Joseph,  after  this  manner  did  my 
father  of  old  prophesy.  Wherefore  because  of  this  covenant  thou 
art  blessed  ;  for  thy  seed  shall  not  be  destroyed,  for  they  shall 
hearken  unto  the  words  of  the  book.  And  there  shall  rise  up  one 
mighty  among  them,  who  shall  do  much  good,  both  in  word  and 
in  deed,  being  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  God,  with  exceed- 
ing faith,  to  work  mighty  wonders,  and  do  that  thing  which  is 
great  in  the  sight  of  God,  unto  the  bringing  to  pass  much  restora- 
tion unto  the  house  of  Israel,  and  unto  the  seed  of  thy  brethren. 
And  now  blessed  art  thou  Joseph. 

This  tells  us  positively,  as  the  reader  can  see,  that 
Joseph  Smith,  the  modern  prophet,  was  to  be  the  de- 
scendant, in  the  direct  line,  of  the  elder  Joseph,  and 
this  too  through  the  line  of  Lehi  and  his  youngest  son, 
Joseph.  And  now,  since  the  Nephites  were  all  de- 
stroyed in  the  year  a.  d.  384  and  only  the  Lamanites 
remained  upon  this  continent,  and  their  descendants, 
if  they  have  any,  are  the  various  Indian  races  of  to-day, 
it  follows  that  Joseph  Smith  must  have  been  an  Indian, 
or    this   prophecy   is    a    failure.      But  Joseph    Smith's 

1  Pp.  65-67. 

E 


66  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

mother  tells  us  that  his  ancestry  came  from  England. 
She  gives  us  the  names  of  his  "progenitors"  for  six 
generations  back  to  Robert  Smith,  who  flourished  in 
England  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  ! 1 

We  are  aware  our  Mormon  brethren  contend  that 
this  prophecy  of  the  elder  Joseph  has  had  a  sort  of 
spiritual  fulfillment  in  the  case  of  Joseph  Smith,  as  of  all 
good  Mormons,  the  theory  being  that  every  person 
who  becomes  a  real  and  true  Mormon  is  brought  into 
a  spiritual  relationship  to  the  ancient  Nephites,  by 
which  he  obtains  their  sacred  books,  their  lands,  their 
unfulfilled  promises,  and  the  like.  Hence  he  is  reck- 
oned as  their  seed  !  But  to  any  matter-of-fact  person 
this  is  the  thinnest  of  subterfuges.  There  is  nothing 
very  spiritual,  or  even  ethereal,  in  the  declaration  so 
often  repeated,  "the  fruit  of  thy  loins." 

On  pages  155,  156,  we  are  told  of  a  party  of  Ne- 
phites, under  the  leadership  of  one  Mosiah,  who  fled 
out  of  their  own  land,  and,  after  wandering  a  long  time 
through  the  wilderness,  discovered  a  land  called  the 
land  of  Zarahemla,  inhabited  by  a  people  who  came 
out  from  Jerusalem  only  a  few  years  after  Lehi  and  his 
company  ;  and,  like  Lehi,  had  been  brought  across  the 
great  waters,  settled  on  this  continent,  and  increased 
until  they  had  become  a  numerous  and  wealthy  people. 
And  please  note  the  following  statement  : 

And  they  (Mosiah  and  his  company)  discovered  a  people  who 
were  called  the  people  of  Zarahemla.  Now  there  was  great  re- 
joicing among  the  people  of  Zarahemla  ;  and  also  Zarahemla  (the 
king)  did  rejoice  exceedingly  because  the  Lord  had  sent  the  peo- 
ple of  Mosiah  with  the  plates  of  brass  which  contained  the  record 
of  the  Jews. 

On  the  very  next  page  the  author,  evidently  forget- 
ting what  he  had  just  said,  flatly  contradicts  it  : 

'See  "Joseph  Smith,  the  Prophet,"  pp.  38-44. 


Joseph  Smith 


Page  ()i 


MIRACLES    IN    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON  67 

And  at  the  time  that  Mosiah  discovered  them  .  .  .  their  lan- 
guage had  become  corrupted  ;  and  they  had  brought  no  records 
with  them  ;  and  they  denied  the  being  of  their  Creator  ;  and  Mo- 
siah nor  the  people  of  Mosiah  could  understand  them. 

In  the  first  sentence  Zarahemla  and  his  people  rejoice 
because  the  Lord  had  sent  this  party  of  strangers  to 
them.  In  the  next  sentence  we  are  told  that  Zarahemla 
and  his  people  ' '  denied  the  being  of  their  Creator. ' ' 

In  the  first  sentence  we  are  still  further  informed  that 
the  special  reason  of  their  rejoicing  was  because  Mosiah 
and  his  company  had  brought  the  brass  plates  contain- 
ing the  record  of  the  Jews. 

In  the  next  sentence  we  are  told  that  their  language 
had  become  so  corrupted  that  neither  Mosiah  nor  his 
people  could  understand  them  ! 

Amaleki,  in  his  old  age,  delivers  his  plates  of  record 
into  the  hands  of  King  Benjamin  : 

Exhorting  all  men  to  come  unto  God,  the  Holy  One  of  Israel, 
and  believe  in  prophesying,  and  in  revelations,  and  in  the  minis- 
tering of  angels,  and  in  the  gift  of  speaking  with  tongues,  and  in 
the  gift  of  interpreting  languages,  and  in  all  things  which  are 
good.1 

As  there  was  but  one  language  at  that  time  spoken 
upon  the  continent  and  would  not  be  for  hundreds  of 
years  afterward,  the  gift  of  speaking  with  tongues  and 
the  gift  of  interpreting  languages  does  not  seem  to  be 
of  special  utility. 

In  the  author  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  there  seems 
to  be  surprising  ignorance  of  the  Bible  : 

And  they  also  took  of  the  firstlings  of  their  flocks,  that  they 
might  offer  sacrifice  and  burnt  offerings  according  to  the  law  of 
Moses.2 

According  to  the  law  of  Moses  the  firstlings  of  their 

IP.  157.  2  p.   J62. 


68  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

flocks  were  never  offered  as  burnt  offerings  or  sacrifices. 
All  firstlings  belonged  to  the  Lord,  de  jure,  and  could 
not  be  counted  as  a  man's  personal  property,  whereas, 
all  burnt  offerings,  or  sacrifices  for  sin  of  every  kind, 
must  be  selected  from  the  man's  own  personal  property, 
or  be  purchased  with  his  own  money  for  that  purpose, 
while  all  firstlings  of  the  flock,  as  the  Lord's  property, 
came  into  the  hands  of  the  high  priest,  and  by  him 
could  be  offered  up  as  a  peace  offering,  not  as  a  bur?it 
offering  or  a  sin  offering,  himself  and  family  eating  the 
flesh.1 

On  page  360  we  have  these  words  : 

And  thus  the  Nephites  were  compelled,  alone,  to  withstand 
against  the  Lamanites,  who  were  a  compound  of  Laman  and 
Lemuel  and  the  sons  of  Ishmael,  and  all  those  who  had  dissented 
from  the  Nephites,  who  were  Amalekites  and  Zoramites,  and  the 
descendants  of  the  priests  of  Noah.  Now  those  descendants 
were  as  numerous,  nearly,  as  were  the  Nephites. 

This  states  positively  that  the  descendants  of  the 
priests  of  Noah  were  as  numerous  nearly  as  were  the 
Nephites.  On  page  206  we  learn  that  a  certain  num- 
ber of  priests,  during  the  reign  of  King  Noah,  had 
been  obliged  to  flee  into  the  wilderness  for  their  lives, 
leaving  families  and  possessions  behind  them.  But  let 
us  read  : 

Now  there  was  a  place  in  Shemlon,  where  the  daughters  of  the 
Lamanites  did  gather  themselves  together  to  sing,  and  to  dance, 
and  to  make  themselves  merry.  And  it  came  to  pass  that  there 
was  one  day  a  small  number  of  them  gathered  together  to  sing, 
and  to  dance.  And  now  the  priests  of  King  Noah,  being  ashamed 
to  return  to  the  city  of  Nephi,  yea,  and  also  fearing  that  the  peo- 
ple would  slay  them,  therefore  they  durst  not  return  to  their 
wives  and  their  children.  And  having  tarried  in  the  wilderness, 
and  having  discovered  the  daughters  of  the  Lamanites,  they  laid 


l  See  Exod.  13  :  2,  1* ;  22  :  29,  30 ;  Num.  3  :  13 ;  2  Sam.  24  :  34 ;  Num.  18  : 
15-18,  and  other  places. 


MIRACLES    IN    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON  69 

and  watched  them  ;  and  when  there  were  but  few  of  them  gath- 
ered together  to  dance,  they  came  forth  out  of  their  secret  places, 
and  took  them  and  carried  them  into  the  wilderness  ;  yea,  twenty 
and  four  of  the  daughters  of  the  Lamanites  they  carried  into  the 
wilderness. 

This,  according  to  the  accepted  chronology,1  occurred 
about  fifty-five  years  before  the  statement  we  are  con- 
sidering when  the  descendants  of  the  priests  of  Noah 
are  found  to  be  nearly  as  numerous  as  the  Nephites  ; 
that  is,  in  fifty-five  years  these  priests  of  Noah,  with 
twenty-four  wives,  have  increased  to  tens  and  hundreds 
of  thousands  !  The  most  rapid  possible  increase  would 
not  have  given  them  more  than  from  two  hundred  to 
three  hundred  grown  men  able  to  take  up  arms. 

From  the  methods  pursued  by  Mr.  Smith  when  trans- 
lating the  Book  of  Mormon  we  can  easily  account  for 
such  monster  mistakes  as  the  above. 

Nephi  number  two,  and  author  of  the  Book  of  Nephi, 
is  made  to  give  himself  entirely  away,  so  far  as  being  in- 
spired by  the  Holy  Spirit  or  helped  by  an  angel  of  God 
to  write  the  Book  of  Nephi.  He  forgets  a  very  impor- 
tant matter  of  record, — leaves  out  of  the  book  an  impor- 
tant fact  that  should  have  gone  in  it.2 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  he  (Jesus)  said  unto  Nephi,  bring  forth 
the  record  which  ye  have  kept.  And  when  Nephi  had  brought 
forth  the  records,  and  laid  them  before  him,  he  cast  his  eyes  upon 
them  and  said,  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  I  commanded  my  servant 
Samuel,  the  Lamanite,  that  he  should  testify  unto  this  people,  that 
at  the  day  the  Father  should  glorify  his  name  in  me,  that  there 
were  many  saints  who  should  arise  from  the  dead,  and  should  ap- 
pear unto  many,  and  should  minister  unto  them.  And  he  said 
unto  them,  Were  it  not  so  ?  And  his  disciples  answered  him  and 
said,  Yea,  Lord,  Samuel  did  prophesy  according  to  thy  words, 
and  they  were  all  fulfilled.  And  Jesus  said  unto  them,  How  be  it 
that  ye  have  not  written  this  thing,  that  many  saints  did  arise 

1  See  "  Compendium,"  pp.  290,  291.  -  P.  531. 


JO  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

and  appear  unto  many,  and  did  minister  unto  them  ?  And  it 
came  to  pass  that  Nephi  remembered  that  this  thing  had  not  been 
written.  And  it  came  to  pass  that  Jesus  commanded  that  it 
should  be  written  ;  therefore,  it  was  written  according  as  he  com- 
manded. 

We  readily  see  how  it  is.  Jesus,  in  glancing  over 
Nephi' s  record,  discovers  an  important  omission,  and 
chides  Nephi  for  his  neglect.  Nephi  acknowledges  the 
omission  ;  and  now,  at  the  command  of  Jesus,  inserts 
the  omitted  matter  in  at  this  place,  entirely  out  of  its 
proper  connection.  Now,  was  Nephi  under  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Holy  Spirit  or  assisted  by  an  angel  from 
heaven  when  he  made  such  a  blunder  as  this  in  keeping 
his  record  ?  Is  a  patched-up  record  inspired  of  God  ? 
If  an  angel  comes  all  the  way  from  heaven  to  help,  it 
should  have  been  an  intelligent  angel,  blessed  with  a 
good  memory,  or  he  could  have  been  of  no  particular 
advantage  to  Nephi. 

Almost  equal  to  any  of  the  preceding  is  an  extraordi- 
nary herding  feat  in  the  statement  upon  page  285,  re- 
garding a  certain  famous  watering-place  called  "the 
waters  of  Sebus  "  : 

All  the  Lamanites  drive  their  flocks  hither  that  they  may  have 
water. 

We  have  previously  been  told  that  the  Lamanites  had 
become  literally  "innumerable  " — that  they  had  spread 
over  a  goodly  portion  of  the  South  American  continent, 
become  rich  in  flocks  and  herds,  and  other  possessions, 
but  here  we  are  informed  that  from  all  over  that  broad 
continent,  thousands  of  miles  in  extent,  they  persist  in 
driving  their  flocks  to  this  one  place  for  their  daily  sup- 
ply of  water. 

Of  a  different  character,  but  not  a  whit  behind  these 
stories  in  its  unnaturalness  and  its  absolute  silliness,  is 


MIRACLES    IN    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON  7 1 

the  following  by  Mormon.1  Mormon  is  recording  the 
rapid  destruction  of  his  people,  the  Nephites.  They 
have  been  driven  out  of  all  their  strongholds  in  Central 
America  ;  one  after  another  their  principal  cities  have 
been  taken  and  destroyed  by  the  victorious  Lamanites. 
Beaten  everywhere,  and  rapidly  driven  northward, 
Mormon  finally  writes  a  letter  to  the  king  of  the 
Lamanites,  making  the  following  strange  request  : 

And  I,  Mormon,  wrote  an  epistle  unto  the  king  of  the  Laman- 
ites, and  desired  of  him  that  he  would  grant  unto  us  that  we  might 
gather  together  our  people  unto  the  land  of  Cumorah,  by  a  hill 
which  was  called  Cumorah,  and  there  we  could  give  them  battle. 
And  it  came  to  pass  that  the  king  of  the  Lamanites  did  grant  unto 
me  the  thing  which  I  desired.  And  it  came  to  pass  that  we  did 
march  forth  to  the  land  of  Cumorah,  and  we  did  pitch  our  tents 
round  about  the  hill  Cumorah  ;  and  it  was  in  a  land  of  many 
waters,  rivers,  and  fountains  ;  and  here  we  had  hope  to  gain  ad- 
vantage over  the  Lamanites. 

Now,  reader,  do  you  think  any  sane  general  of  an 
army  would  write  such  a  letter  as  the  above  to  his 
deadly  foe?  And  if  such  a  letter  had  been  written,  do 
you  think  such  a  deadly  foe,  if  in  his  senses,  would 
have  consented  ?  Please  bear  in  mind  that  the  Laman- 
ites' home  was  in  South  America,  and  that  the  principal 
possessions  of  the  Nephites,  their  largest  cities,  nearly 
everything  desirable  as  plunder,  are  found  in  Central 
America,  while  this  hill,  Cumorah,  is  located  in  western 
New  York,2  from  two  to  three  thousand  miles  distant. 
Would  the  Lamanite  king  be  willing  to  transport  an 
army  of  several  hundred  thousand,  at  least  two  thousand 
miles  away  from  his  base  of  supplies,  into  a  sparsely  set- 
tled country,  where  provisions  were  necessarily  scarce, 
for  no  other  reason  than  to  allow  his  enemy  to  secure 


1  P.  559- 

2  The  hill  Cumorah  is  in  Manchester,  Ontario  County,  New  York. — From 
note  in  Book  of  Mormon,  p.  55Q. 


72  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

a  good  position  where  they  "  had  hope  to  gain  advan- 
tage over  the  Lamanites  "  ? 

But  again,  why  do  you  suppose  the  good  prophet 
Mormon  was  so  anxious  to  reach  that  particular  hill 
Cumorah,  so  far  away  from  the  homes  and  possessions 
of  his  people  ?  Was  it  really  because  said  hill  was  a 
natural  fortification,  a  famous  strategic  point  ?  Not  at 
all  ;  it  is  only  a  little  hill,  while  in  reaching  that  hill  he 
had  climbed  over  hundreds  of  mountain  fastnesses,  had 
marched  by  scores  of  magnificent  caTw?is,  or  river  gorges, 
and  other  of  nature's  hiding-places  or  of  Thermopylae 
passes — a  thousand  places  being  presented  that  were  a 
hundred  times  better  adapted  to  the  object  he  had  in 
.view,  "  to  gain  some  advantage  over  the  Lamanites." 

Why  then  does  he  ignore  all  these  strong  places  and 
march  his  army  two  thousand  miles  away  from  the 
mountains  to  a  little  hill  in  western  New  York  that  was 
utterly  valueless  as  a  natural  barrier  against  an  enemy  ? 
We  will  whisper  the  reason.  Joseph  Smith  found  his 
golden  plates  in  this  hill  Cumorah,  and  he  must  needs 
get  Mormon  and  Moroni  up  there  with  their  sacred 
records  before  these  worthies  are  swept  out  of  existence, 
or  his  ancient  history  will  not  tally  with  the  modern 
facts  ! 

And  it  came  to  pass  when  we  had  gathered  in  all  our  people 
in  one  to  the  land  of  Cumorah,  behold  I,  Mormon,  began  to  be 
old  ;  and  knowing  it  to  be  the  last  struggle  of  my  people,  and 
having  been  commanded  of  the  Lord  that  I  should  not  suffer  that 
the  records  which  had  been  handed  down  by  our  fathers,  which 
were  sacred,  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  Lamanites  (for  the 
Lamanites  would  destroy  them),  therefore  I  made  this  record  out 
of  the  plates  of  Nephi,  and  hid  up  in  the  hill  Cumorah  all  the 
records  which  had  been  entrusted  to  me  by  the  hand  of  the  Lord, 
save  it  were  these  few  plates  which  I  gave  unto  my  son  Moroni.1 

And    Moroni   is   represented   as  living  several  years 
i  p.  56o. 


MIRACLES    IN    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON  73 

after,  and  managing  to  ' '  hide  up  "  "  these  few  plates ' ' 
in  the  same  place  where  Joseph  Smith,  who  happened 
to  live  in  the  neighborhood,  found  them  fourteen  hun- 
dred years  afterward. 

Very  unnatural  and  very  rapid  changes  take  place  in 
the  record  of  the  Nephites.  At  one  time  this  tribe  is 
presented  to  us  as  composed  of  the  best  and  purest 
Christians  upon  earth,  living  in  delightful  harmony  and 
peace,  and  receiving  constant  favors  from  God.  In  a 
single  year,  perhaps,  the  whole  scene  is  changed  and 
the  noble  Christian  has  become  a  wicked  devil,  reveling 
in  debauchery  and  crime.  In  the  same  exaggerated 
strain  material  prosperity  or  adversity  is  recorded.  Pop- 
ulations suddenly  increase  ;  in  a  few  years  an  entire 
continent  is  filled  with  a  teeming  population.  Gold, 
silver,  and  riches  of  all  kinds,  including  cattle,  sheep, 
and  what  not,  appear  or  disappear  as  if  by  magic — cities 
spring  up,  temples  and  sanctuaries  are  built  with  as  little 
dependence  upon  natural  or  physical  causes  as  the  mag- 
nificent temple  patterned  after  Solomon's,  built  in  three 
or  four  years  by  three  men  and  a  few  boys  already 
mentioned.1 

But  this  is  especially  true  of  the  Lamanites.  The 
history  of  all  civilizations  clearly  shows  that  a  savage  or 
barbarous  state  is  least  of  all  adapted  to  a  rapid  increase 
of  population.  There  is  nothing  in  the  habits  and  sur- 
roundings of  untutored  wild  races  to  encourage  develop- 
ment and  growth.  Civilized  and  Christian  nations  only 
have  shown  a  rapid  increase  of  population.  But  the 
Book  of  Mormon  directly  reverses  this  lesson  of  the 
ages.  The  statement  on  page  151  that  the  Lamanites 
had  become  wild  and  ferocious  and  filthy,  wandering 
about  in  the  wilderness,  naked,  and  feeding  upon  un- 
cooked beasts  of  prey,  is  immediately  followed  (153)  by 

1  For  illustrations  of  rapid  and  unnatural  changes,  see  pp.  243,  276,  433,  434, 
445,  448,  489-492. 


74  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

the  statement  that  they  had  become  "exceeding  more 
numerous  than  were  they  of  the  Nephites,"  and  on  page 
218  they  are  more  than  double  the  combined  popula- 
tions of  the  Nephites  and  the  people  of  Zarahemla  ! 
While  on  page  239  they  have  become  "so  numerous 
that  they  could  not  be  numbered." 

And  like  exaggerated  accounts  frequently  occur.  It 
matters  not  how  many  times  they  are  defeated  in  battle, 
with  the  loss  of  tens  of  thousands  in  each  engagement l 
they  suddenly  reappear  with  increasing  numbers.  At 
one  time  a  large  portion  of  them  are  converted2  and 
join  the  Nephites.  Yet  those  who  are  left  exhibit  the 
same  "enormity"  of  numbers  ! 

Quite  as  sudden  and  unaccountable  are  other  changes. 
On  page  151  we  are  told  : 

Their  hatred  was  fixed,  and  they  were  led  by  their  evil  nature 
that  they  became  wild,  and  ferocious,  and  a  bloodthirsty  people  ; 
full  of  idolatry  and  filthiness  ;  feeding  upon  beasts  of  prey  ;  dwell- 
ing in  tents,  and  wandering  about  in  the  wilderness  with  a  short 
skin  girdle  about  their  loins,  and  their  heads  shaven  ;  and  their 
skill  was  in  the  bow,  and  in  the  cimeter,  and  the  axe.  And  many 
of  them  did  eat  nothing  save  it  was  raw  meat ;  and  they  were  con- 
tinually seeking  to  destroy  us. 

Remember,  only  one  generation  has  passed  away. 
The  sons  of  Laman  and  Lemuel  are  now  at  the  head 
of  affairs,  boys  who  during  their  entire  childhood  were 
under  constant  Christian  influences.  They  were  brought 
up  with  Nephi,  Jacob,  and  Joseph,  and  with  their  grand- 
father Lehi,  and  familiar  with  all  the  refinements  of  the 
highest  civilization.  Is  it  not,  therefore,  expecting  a 
large  measure  of  credulity  to  ask  us  to  believe  that  boys 
with  such  early  advantages  could  become  so  wild  and 
ferocious,  could  be  content  to  live  without  comfortable 
shelter  or  clothing,  and  feed  upon  raw  meat  ? 

1  pp-  242, 317-  '  2  p.  304- 


MIRACLES    IN    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON  75 

The  reader  has  already  discovered  an  attempt  to  de- 
scribe the  American  Indian.  The  theory  of  the  book 
is,  that  the  Indian  races  of  to-day,  are  the  direct  de- 
scendants of  the  Lamanites.  We  may  therefore  expect 
to  find  many  attempts  to  verify  this  theory.  They 
have  already  a  black  skin,  have  become  ferocious,  are 
without  houses,  without  clothing  except  a  skin  girdle, 
and  feed  upon  raw  meat.  On  page  156  we  have  the 
expression,  "he  dwelt  with  them  for  the  space  of  nine 
moons."  On  page  287  the  Great  Spirit  is  introduced 
as  a  tradition  the  Lamanites  have  received  from  their 
forefathers — both  of  which  are  well-known  Indian  terms, 
but  could  not  have  been  possible  either  among  the 
Lamanites  or  Nephites,  who  brought  from  the  city  of 
Jerusalem  Jewish  theology,  a  knowledge  of  the  true 
God,  and  Jewish  methods  of  reckoning  time. 

But  other  Indian  customs  or  habits  are  dragged  in. 
On  page  284  they  are  described  as  "indolent  people," 
but  delighting  in  murdering  the  Nephites,  and  in  rob- 
bing and  plundering  them.  On  page  361  their  armor 
is  described.  They  had  swords  and  cimeters,  bows  and 
arrows,  stones,  slings,  and  axes,  but  no  defensive  armor. 
They  had  far  greater  skill  in  fashioning  arms  than  in 
making  clothing.  On  page  366  a  Lamanite  general  is 
scalped  after  the  most  approved  Indian  fashion,  though 
the  plucky  fellow  refused  to  retire,  and  did  his  most 
effective  fighting  afterward,  though  minus  his  scalp  ! 

On  page  216  we  find  the  Lamanites  greatly  im- 
proved. Their  king  appointed  teachers  over  them, 
who  gave  them  instruction  in  writing,  in  the  use  of  the 
Nephite  language,  in  keeping  their  own  records,  and 
other  things. 

And  thus  the  Lamanites  began  to  increase  in  riches,  and  began 
to  trade  one  with  another,  and  wax  great,  and  began  to  be  a  cun- 
ning and  a  wise  people,  as  to  the  wisdom  of  the  world  ;  yea,  a 
very  cunning  people. 


y6  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

But  six  or  eight  years  after  this  successful  attempt  to 
civilize  them,  we  find  them  thus  described  :  * 

Now  the  heads  of  the  Lamanites  were  shorn  ;  and  they  were 
naked,  save  it  were  skin,  which  was  girded  about  their  loins,  and 
also  their  armor,  which  was  girded  about  them,  and  their  bows 
and  their  arrows,  and  their  stones,  and  their  slings,  etc.  And  the 
skins  of  the  Lamanites  were  dark,  according  to  the  mark  which 
was  set  upon  their  fathers. 

And  while  page  284  describes  them  as  a  wild,  hardened, 
ferocious  people,  delighting  in  robbery,  plunder,  and 
murder,  a  ''very  indolent  people,"  and  "naked,"  yet 
they  possessed  dwelling-houses,  built  great  cities  in  which 
are  found  synagogues  and  sanctuaries  and  temples,  and 
many  of  them  had  become  Universalists.  "We  do  be- 
lieve that  God  will  save  all  men."  2  Absurdly  contra- 
dictory are  the  descriptions  here  given  us  of  this  people. 

In  battle  our  author  usually  makes  them  play  the  role 
of  the  Indian  quite  successfully,  but  constantly  forgets 
this  character  in  other  relations.  In  war  they  are  sav- 
ages, don't  know  enough  to  make  shields  or  helmets  or 
breastplates  or  clothing  for  their  persons,  and  are  slain 
by  the  tens  of  thousands  for  the  want  of  these  protec- 
tions.3 At  the  same  time  they  do  know  enough  to  con- 
tend sharply  for  universal  salvation,  to  build  dwelling- 
houses,  synagogues,  sanctuaries,  and  temples,  together 
with  magnificent  cities,  and  surround  themselves  with 
gold  and  silver  and  precious  things,  to  cultivate  the 
ground  and  raise  flocks  and  herds  in  abundance  ! 

We  will  close  this  chapter  with  a  brief  word  upon  the 
subject  of  polygamy.  Strange  as  it  may  appear,  in  view 
of  the  almost  unanimous  acceptance  of  the  doctrine  by 
the  Mormon  Church  to-day,  the  Book  of  Mormon  gives 
forth  no  uncertain  sound  upon  this  subject.  The  fol- 
lowing are  the  most  important  of  its  deliverances  : 
1  p.  240.  2  pp_  297, 298, 304.  3  Pp.  361-366. 


MIRACLES    IN    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON  7 "J 

And  now  it  came  to  pass  that  the  people  of  Nephi,  under  the 
reign  of  the  second  king,  began  to  grow  hard  in  their  hearts,  and 
indulge  themselves  somewhat  in  wicked  practices,  such  as  like 
unto  David  of  old,  desiring  many  wives  and  concubines,  and  also 
Solomon,  his  son.1 

And  Jacob,  as  a  faithful  king  and  counselor,  felt  con- 
strained to  openly  rebuke  them  for  this  abomination,  as 
he  calls  it.  After  talking  to  them  earnestly  for  a  time 
about  their  pride,  he  proceeds  thus  : 2 

And  now  I  make  an  end  of  speaking  unto  you  concerning  this 
pride.  And  were  it  not  that  I  must  speak  unto  you  concerning  a 
grosser  crime,  my  heart  would  rejoice  exceedingly  because  of  you. 
But  the  word  of  God  burthens  me  because  of  your  grosser  crimes. 
For  behold,  thus  saith  the  Lord,  This  people  begin  to  wax  in  in- 
iquity ;  they  understand  not  the  Scriptures  ;  for  they  seek  to  ex- 
cuse themselves  in  committing  whoredoms,  because  of  the  things 
which  were  written  concerning  David,  and  Solomon,  his  son.  [How 
much  like  modern  Nephites  !]  Behold,  David  and  Solomon  truly 
had  many  wives  and  concubines,  which  thing  was  abominable  be- 
fore me,  saith  the  Lord  ;  wherefore,  thus  saith  the  Lord,  I  have 
led  this  people  forth  out  of  the  land  of  Jerusalem,  by  the  power  of 
mine  arm,  that  I  might  raise  up  unto  me  a  righteous  branch  from 
the  fruit  of  the  loins  of  Joseph.  Wherefore,  I,  the  Lord  God,  will 
not  suffer  that  this  people  shall  do  like  unto  them  of  old.  Where- 
fore, my  brethren,  hear  me,  and  hearken  to  the  word  of  the  Lord  ; 
for  there  shall  not  any  man  among  you  have,  save  it  be  one  wife  ; 
and  concubines  he  shall  have  none  ;  for  I,  the  Lord  God,  delight- 
eth  in  the  chastity  of  women.  And  whoredoms  are  an  abomina- 
tion before  me  ;  thus  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts.  Wherefore,  this 
people  shall  keep  my  commandments,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  or 
cursed  be  the  land  for  their  sakes.  .  .  Behold  ye  have  done 
greater  iniquities  than  the  Lamanites,  our  brethren.  Ye  have 
broken  the  hearts  of  your  tender  wives,  and  lost  the  confidence  of 
your  children,  because  of  your  bad  examples  before  them  ;  and  the 
sobbings  of  their  hearts  ascend  up  to  God  against  you.   .   . 

Behold,  the  Lamanites,  your  brethren,  whom  ye  hate,  because 
of  their  filthiness  and  the  cursings  which  hath  come  upon  their 
skins,  are  more  righteous  than  you  ;  for  they  have  not  forgotten 
the  commandment  of  the  Lord,  which  was  given  unto  our  fathers, 
that   they  should  have,  save   it   were   one  wife  ;  and  concubines 

1  Pp.  129,  130.  2  Pp.  132-134. 


yS  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

they  should  have  none  ;  and  there  should  not  be  whoredoms 
committed  among  them.  And  now  this  commandment  they  ob- 
serve to  keep  ;  wherefore,  because  of  this  observance,  in  keep- 
ing this  commandment,  the  Lord  God  will  not  destroy  them,  but 
will  be  merciful  unto  them  ;  and  one  day  they  shall  become  a 
blessed  people.   .   . 

0  my  brethren,  I  fear,  that  unless  ye  shall  repent  of  your  sins, 
that  their  skins  shall  be  whiter  than  yours,  when  ye  shall  be 
brought  with  them  before  the  throne  of  God.1 

We  believe  in  giving  even  the  devil  his  due,  and 
hence  we  record  to  the  credit  of  the  Book  of  Mormon, 
that  it  gives  forth  no  uncertain  sound  upon  this  subject. 

But  now  the  funny  thing,  and  the  very  unfortunate 
thing  about  it  is,  that  all  this  earnest  talk  upon  the 
subject  of  polygamy  occurred  in  the  beginning  of  King 
Jacob's  reign,  between  fifty- five  and  sixty  years  after 
the  company  left  Jerusalem,  when  there  were  no  women 
in  existence  upon  the  continent  with  whom  the  men 
could  have  indulged  polygamous  practices  except  their 
own  daughters,  or  sisters,  or  first  cousins,  and  these 
were  very  scarce.  In  fact  the  men  old  enough  to  be 
married  at  all  were  very  few,  aside  from  the  original 
five.  It  is  simply  another  illustration  of  our  author's 
very  peculiar  proclivity  to  make  a  great  ado  over  a 
very  small  matter. 

1  feel  constrained  to  call  attention  to  a  still  more  un- 
fortunate fact  concerning  these  statements  of  the  Book 
of  Mormon  upon  the  subject  of  polygamy.  It  is  evi- 
dent either  that  Joseph  Smith  himself  had  no  confi- 
dence in  these  statements,  knew  they  were  fraudulent, 
or  else  he  had  forgotten  them  when  he  gave  to  his 
church  and  to  the  world  in  1843  his  noted  revelation 
on  polygamy.  For  he  makes  his  god  flatly  contradict 
himself,  tell  an  absolute  falsehood  either  in  the  Book 
of  Mormon  or  in  the  new  revelation  in  1843. 


1  See  also  p.  534,  etc. 


MIRACLES    IN    THE    BOOK    OF    MORMON  79 

I  understand  fully  the  Mormon  position,  that  their 
god  is  a  progressive  being,  knows  more  now  than  he 
did  two  or  three  thousand  years  ago,  and  may,  there- 
fore, be  expected  to  reveal  doctrines  and  give  com- 
mands to-day  far  in  advance,  or  even  diametrically 
opposed  to  revelations  made  so  long  ago,  possibly  de- 
nouncing to-day  what  he  commanded  then.  But 
when  Mr.  Smith  makes  his  god  say  in  the  Book  of 
Mormon:  "Behold,  David  and  Solomon  truly  had 
many  wives  and  concubines  which  thing  was  abomina- 
ble before  me,  saith  the  Lord,"  and  in  1843  makes 
the  same  god  say  of  the  same  person,  "  David's  wives 
and  concubines  were  given  unto  him  of  me  by  the 
hand  of  Nathan  my  servant,  and  others  of  the  prophets 
who  had  the  keys  of  this  power  ;  and  in  none  of  these 
things  did  they  sin  against  me,"  then  he  has  involved 
his  deity  in  an  out-and-out  falsehood,  for  both  of  these 
statements  cannot  be  true.  If  the  polygamous  prac- 
tices of  David  were  an  abomination  to  the  Lord,  then 
the  statements  made  in  1843  about  David  are  false  ; 
and  if  these  statements  are  false,  then  it  is  not  strain- 
ing one's  logic  to  conclude  that  the  entire  revelation  is 
a  fraud.  On  the  other  hand,  if  David's  polygamous 
practices  were  commanded  and  commended  by  the 
Lord,  then  the  statements  above  quoted  from  the  Book 
of  Mormon  are  of  course  false  ;  and  if  these  are  false, 
then  the  whole  book  is  likely  to  be.  And  whether  this 
falsehood  is  located  in  the  Book  of  Mormon  or  in  the 
revelation  of  1843,  the  character  of  Joseph  Smith  is 
directly  involved,  since  both  these  revelations  came  to 
us  through  him.  But  if  Joseph  Smith  was  a  fraud, 
then  the  Book  of  Mormon  must  be  also. 


CHAPTER    IV 

THE    BIBLE    UNDERMINED 

ONE  of  the  most  serious  objections  to  the  "  Book  of 
Mormon ' '  is  that  it  undermines  faith  in  the  word 
of  God.  I  say  this  after  a  great  deal  of  observation 
and  deliberation.  I  know  that  there  is  not  a  good, 
honest  Mormon  in  existence  who  does  not  profess,  and 
sincerely  too,  the  utmost  loyalty  to  the  Bible.  No  one 
was  more  loud  in  this  profession  than  was  Joseph  Smith. 
But  still  it  is  susceptible  of  the  clearest  demonstration 
that  he  was  practically  an  infidel,  and  that  the  sad 
results  of  his  teaching  have  been  to  multiply  infidels  as 
rapidly,  perhaps  more  rapidly,  than  any  other  system 
of  religion  in  the  world.  Of  what  other  religious  sys- 
tem, true  or  false,  can  it  be  said  that  the  majority  of  its 
children  are  infidels  ?  This  unenviable  distinction  be- 
longs to  the  Mormon  Church  of  to-day.  No  logic  can 
evade  the  sad  fact,  and  no  honest  and  intelligent  Mor- 
mon will  dispute  it,1  for  it  is  the  inevitable  outcome  of 
the  teaching  of  the  ' '  Book  of  Mormon, ' '  as  we  shall 
see. 

It  is  very  readily  conceded  that  the  "Book  of  Mor- 
mon" everywhere  professes  the  warmest  attachment  to 
the  Bible  as  the  word  of  God.  It  quotes  from  it  as 
freely  as  any  other  book  that  has  ever  been  printed.      I 

1  At  the  annual  conference  held  in  Provo,  April  4-8,  1886.  one  of  the  leading 
speakers  confessed  with  a  sad  heart  that  one-third  of  all  the  boys  and  young 
men  in  Utah  between  fifteen  and  thirty  years  of  age  were  infidels.  This  state- 
ment was  several  times  alluded  to  and  fully  confirmed  by  subsequent  speakers. 
And  my  own  observation  is  that  this  infidelity  among  the  young  people  is  even 
more  widespread  than  the  above  admission  would  indicate,  especially  as  to  the 
Bible,  and  is  being  shared  by  a  rapidly  increasing  number  of  the  older  mem- 
bers of  the  Mormon  Church  in  Utah. 

80 


THE    BIBLE    UNDERMINED  8 1 

have  estimated  that  nearly  one-fourth  of  the  contents 
of  the  "  Book  of  Mormon  "  is  made  up  from  quotations, 
direct  or  indirect,  from  the  Bible.  And  all  these  quo- 
tations are  recognized  as  the  word  of  God  and  of  divine 
authority.  From  Bible  decisions  no  appeal  is  taken  in 
the  "  Book  of  Mormon."  In  fact,  the  book  pretends 
to  be  the  handmaid  of  the  Bible,  to  be  its  complement 
and  support.  It  professes  to  furnish  the  clearest  proofs 
of  the  divine  origin  of  the  Bible. 

And  the  angel  spake  unto  me,  saying,  these  last  records  which 
thou  hast  seen  among  the  Gentiles  shall  establish  the  truth  of  the 
first,  which  are  of  the  twelve  apostles  of  the  Lamb.1 

But  a  seer  will  I  raise  up  out  of  the  fruit  of  thy  loins  ;  and  unto 
him  will  I  give  power  to  bring  forth  my  word  [Book  of  Mor- 
mon] unto  the  seed  of  thy  loins,  and  not  to  the  bringing  forth 
my  word  only,  saith  the  Lord,  but  to  the  convincing  them  of  my 
word,  which  shall  have  already  gone  forth  among  them  [the 
Bible],  and  that  which  shall  be  written  by  the  fruit  of  thy  loins 
and  also  that  which  shall  be  written  by  the  fruit  of  the  loins  of 
Judah,  shall  grow  together,  unto  the  confounding  of  false  doc- 
trines, and  laying  down  of  contentions,  and  establishing  peace.2 

And  yet,  notwithstanding  all  this,  the  evidence  is 
overwhelmingly  against  the  Book  of  Mormon  as  the 
friend  and  the  handmaid  of  the  Bible.  The  evi- 
dence is  that  the  Book  of  Mormon  is  the  double- 
faced  Joab  to  perfection3  who,  while  he  took  Amasa 
by  the  beard  with  one  hand  and  kissed  him,  with  the 
other  hand  he  stabbed  him  to  the  heart  !  This,  we  are 
sorry  to  know,  is  the  Book  of  Mormon's  friendship  for 
the  Bible.      Note,  for  instance,  the  following  : 

Because  my  words  shall  hiss  forth,  many  of  the  Gentiles  shall 
say,  a  bible,  a  bible,  we  have  got  a  bible,  and  there  cannot  be  any 
more  bible.  .  .  Thou  fool,  that  shall  say  a  bible,  we  have  got  a 
bible,  and  we  need  no  more  bible.  .  .  Because  that  I  have  spoken 
one  word,  ye  need  not  suppose  that  I  cannot  speak  another  ;  for 

1  P.  29.  2  P.  66.  3  See  2  Sam.  20  :  9,  10. 


82  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

my  work  is  not  yet  finished  ;  neither  shall  it  be,  until  the  end  of 
man  ;  neither  from  that  time  henceforth  and  for  ever. 

Wherefore,  because  that  ye  have  a  bible,  ye  need  not  suppose 
that  it  contains  all  my  words  ;  neither  need  ye  suppose  that  I 
have  not  caused  more  to  be  written. 

.  .  .  For  behold,  I  shall  speak  unto  the  Jews,  and  they  shall 
write  it ;  and  I  shall  also  speak  unto  the  Nephites,  and  they  shall 
write  it  ;  and  I  shall  also  speak  unto  the  other  tribes  of  the  house 
of  Israel,  which  I  have  led  away,  and  they  shall  write  it ;  and  I 
shall  also  speak  unto  all  nations  of  the  earth,  and  they  shall 
write  it.1 

This  passage  is  unequivocal.  It  tells  us  that  the 
Bible  is  not  all  of  the  word  of  God  ;  that  which  he 
speaks  to  Nephi  (J.  e.,  Book  of  Mormon)  is  equally 
his  word,  and  what  he  shall  speak  to  the  ten  lost  tribes 
of  Israel  will  be  equally  God's  word. 

But  this  is  not  all  that  the  passage  tells  us.  It  tells 
us  that  each  separate  nation  shall  have  a  ' '  Bible  ' '  of 
their  own,  or  God's  word  revealed  specially  to  them. 
So  that  the  inference  is  clear  and  unmistakable  ;  the 
Bible  is,  after  all,  the  Bible  of  the  Jews  and  not  the 
Bible  of  the  other  nations  of  the  world.  Note  the  fol- 
lowing citations  : 

Nothing  can  be  more  erroneous  than  to  suppose  that  the  reve- 
lations given  to  one  individual,  people,  or  generation,  are  suffi- 
cient to  fully  develop  the  duties  of  another  individual,  people,  or 
generation.2 

But  the  message  which  God  has  sent  these  men  with  is  binding 
only  on  the  generation  to  whom  it  is  sent,  and  is  not  binding  at 
all  upon  those  who  are  dead  and  gone  before  it  came  ;  neither 
will  it  be  binding  on  any  generation  which  shall  come  after,  unless 
God  should  raise  up  men  and  send  them  with  the  same  gospel.  .  . 
The  fact  is,  God  requires  nothing  more  of  a  generation  than  to  do 
those  things  which  he  commands  them  ;  a  generation  to  whom  he 
reveals  nothing,  or  to  whom  he  does  not  send  men  with  a  message 
from  him,  have  no  message  to  obey,  and  none  to  reject,  and  con- 
sequently nothing  is  binding  on  them,  except  the  moral  principles 


Pp.  121,  122.  2  <<  Orson  Pratt's  Works. 


THE    BIBLE    UNDERMINED  83 

of  right  and  wrong,  which  are  equally  binding  on  all  ages  of  the 
world.1 

The  Book  of  Mormon  and  Mormon  authorities  go 
further  than  this.  They  attempt  to  resuscitate  an 
old  infidel  objection  to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  though 
stated  in  different  form.  A  bold  falsehood  is  presented 
in  the  guise  of  a  historical  fact  for  the  real  purpose  of 
making  a  place  for  the  Book  of  Mormon.  The  rep- 
resentation is  that  while  the  Bible,  as  it  came  forth 
from  the  hands  of  the  apostles  in  the  first  century,  was 
all  right  and  complete,  containing  the  whole  gospel,  yet 
soon  after  the  apostles'  death  a  great  and  abominable 
church  arose  and  removed  from  the  gospel  many  of  its 
most  precious  things,  "  many  parts  which  are  plain  and 
most  precious,  and  also  many  covenants  of  the  Lord 
have  they  taken  away" — so  much,  in  fact,  that  the 
Bible,  as  we  have  it  now,  is  a  blind  guide,  so  honey- 
combed by  error  that  by  itself  alone  it  perverts  the 
right  ways  of  the  Lord,  causing  "many"  to  "stumble 
exceedingly,"  giving  Satan  "great  power  over  them," 
leaving  them  in  an  "  awful  state  of  blindness,"  necessi- 
tating such  additional  revelations  as  are  found  in  the 
Book  of  Mormon  to  lead  men  into  the  truth,  other- 
wise they  could  not  be  saved  at  all !  Note  the  fol- 
lowing : 

Because  of  those  things  which  are  taken  away  out  of  the  Gospel 
of  the  Lamb,  an  exceeding  great  many  do  stumble,  yea,  insomuch 
that  Satan  hath  great  power  over  them  ;  nevertheless,  .  .  neither 
will  the  Lord  God  suffer  that  the  Gentiles  shall  forever  remain 
in  that  awful  state  of  blindness  which  thou  beholdest  they  are  in, 
because  of  the  plain  and  most  precious  parts  of  the  Gospel  of  the 
Lamb  which  have  been  kept  back  by  that  abominable  church, 
whose  formation  thou  hast  seen.  .  .  And  after  the  Gentiles  do 
stumble  exceedingly,  because  of  the  most  plain  and  precious  parts 
of  the  Gospel  of  the  Lamb  which  have  been  kept  back  by  that 

1 "  The  Voice  of  Warning,"  by  Parley  P.  Pratt,  pp.  180-182. 


84  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

abominable  church,  which  is  the  mother  of  harlots,  saith  the 
Lamb  :  I  will  be  merciful  to  the  Gentiles  in  that  day,  insomuch 
that  I  will  bring  forth  unto  them  in  mine  own  power  much  of  my 
Gospel,  which  shall  be  plain  and  precious,  saith  the  Lamb.1 

Indeed,  no  one,  without  further  revelation,  knows  whether  even 
one-hundredth  part  of  the  doctrines  and  ordinances  of  salvation 
are  contained  in  the  few  books  of  Scripture  which  have  descended 
to  our  times  ;  how,  then,  can  it  be  decided  that  they  are  a  suffi- 
cient guide  ?  .   .   . 

What  shall  we  say,  then,  concerning  the  Bible  being  a  sufficient 
guide  ?  Can  we  rely  upon  it  in  its  present  known  corrupted 
state  as  being  a  faithful  record  of  God's  word?  We  all  know 
that  but  a  few  of  the  inspired  writings  have  descended  to  our 
times,  which  few  quote  the  names  of  some  twenty  other  books 
which  are  lost,  and  it  is  quite  certain  that  there  were  many  other 
inspired  books  that  even  the  names  have  not  reached  us.  What 
few  have  come  down  to  our  day  have  been  mutilated,  changed, 
and  corrupted  in  such  a  shameful  manner  that  no  two  manuscripts 
agree.  Verses  and  even  whole  chapters  have  been  added  by 
unknown  persons,  and  even  we  do  not  know  the  authors  of  some 
whole  books,  and  we  are  not  certain  that  all  those  which  we  do 
know  were  wrote  by  inspiration.  Add  all  this  imperfection  to  the 
uncertainty  of  the  translation,  and  who  in  his  right  mind  could, 
for  one  moment,  suppose  the  Bible  in  its  present  form  to  be  a  per- 
fect guide  ?  Who  knows  that  even  one  verse  of  the  whole  Bible 
has  escaped  pollution,  so  as  to  convey  the  same  sense  now  that  it 
did  in  the  original  ?  2  Who  knows  how  many  important  doctrines 
and  ordinances  necessary  to  salvation  may  be  buried  in  oblivion 
in  some  of  the  lost  books  ?  Who  knows  that  even  the  ordinances 
and  doctrines  that  seem  to  be  set  forth  in  the  present  English  Bible 
are  anything  like  the  original  ?  3 

i  Pp.  27,  28. 

2  To  the  above  specious  question  which  has  hid  underneath  it  the  boldest  in- 
fidelity and  the  most  wicked  deception,  it  would  be  an  all-sufficient  answer  to 
an  honest  Mormon  to  reply  as  follows  :  "  The  Book  of  Mormon  itself  is  our 
proof  that  not  only  'one  verse,'  but  that  in  the  neighborhood  of  ten  thousand 
verses  in  our  Bible  have  '  escaped  pollution,'  so  that  they  convey  the  same 
sense  now  that  they  did  in  the  original." 

There  are  probably  not  less  than  ten  thousand  verses  from  our  Bible  found 
in  the  Book  of  Mormon,  and  each  one  of  these  verses  is  professedly  trans- 
lated by  the  gift  and  power  of  God  from  ancient  Egyptian  plates,  professedly 
as  pure  as  God  first  gave  them.  And  yet  each  one  of  these  verses  is  found  in 
the  Book  of  Mormon  precisely  as  we  have  them  to-day  in  our  English 
Bibles. 

This,  to  an  honest  Mormon,  will  be  a  sufficient  reply  as  well  as  a  merited 
rebuke  to  the  above  miserable  insinuation  of  Mr.  Pratt  against  the  Bible. 

^•'Divine  Authenticity  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,"  pp.  204,  205,  218,  Orson 
Pratt 


THE    BIBLE    UNDERMINED  85 

The  Book  of  Mormon  frequently  refers  to  other 
prophets  of  the  olden  times  whose  names  do  not  appear 
in  the  Old  Testament,  as  the  following  : l 

Yea,  the  God  of  Abraham,  and  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob, 
yieldeth  himself  according  to  the  words  of  the  angel,  as  a  man, 
into  the  hands  of  wicked  men,  to  be  lifted  up  according  to  the 
words  of  Zenock,  and  to  be  crucified,  according  to  the  words  of 
Neum,  and  to  be  buried  in  a  sepulchre,  according  to  the  words 
of  Zenos,  which  he  spoke  concerning  the  three  days  of  darkness, 

and  then  quotes  nearly  a  page  from  this  last  prophet. 

On  pages  137-145  we  have  eight  pages  quoted  from 
this  same  prophet  Zenos.  See  also  pages  334  and 
others. 

A  little  book  called  "The  Pearl  of  Great  Price,"  a 
modern  revelation,  reflects  the  teaching  of  the  Book 
of  Mormon,  by  coolly  adding  to  the  Old  Testament 
three  very  important  books  or  portions  of  books. 

1.  "  Extracts  from  the  Prophecy  of  Enoch,  contain- 
ing also  a  Pvevelation  of  the  Gospel  unto  our  father 
Adam,  after  he  was  driven  out  from  the  Garden  of 
Eden.      Revealed  to  Joseph  Smith,  December,  1830." 

2.  "The  words  of  God,  which  he  spake  unto  Moses 
at  the  time  when  Moses  was  caught  up  into  an  exceed- 
ing high  mountain,  and  he  saw  God  face  to  face.  Re- 
vealed to  Joseph  Smith,  June,  1830." 

3.  "  The  Book  of  Abraham.  A  translation  of  some 
ancient  records,  that  have  fallen  into  our  hands  from 
the  catacombs  of  Egypt,  purporting  to  be  the  writings 
of  Abraham,  while  he  was  in  Egypt,  called  the  Book 
of  Abraham,  written  by  his  own  hand  upon  papyrus. 
Translated  from  the  papyrus  by  Joseph  Smith. ' ' 

How  completely  the  Old  Testament  is  at  fault  as  an 
ancient  revelation  of  the  truth,  in  the  estimation  of 
Joseph  Smith,  or  the  angel  who  inspired  him,  may  be 

ip.  48. 


86  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

readily  inferred  by  the  character  of  the  above  emenda- 
tions and  additions — the  most  important  of  which  is, 
briefly,  that  the  whole  plan  of  human  redemption  is 
explained  to  Adam,  Enoch,  Noah,  Abraham,  and 
Moses,  as  well  as  to  all  the  authors  of  the  Book  of 
Mormon  who  are  supposed  to  have  written  before  the 
New  Testament  dispensation.  They  were  taught  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  of  the  new  birth,  the  work  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  etc.  They  submitted  to  the  ordinance 
of  baptism  by  immersion — even 

Adam  was  baptized — "caught  away  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord, 
and  was  carried  down  into  the  water,  and  was  laid  under  the 
water,  and  was  brought  forth  out  of  the  water.  And  thus  he  was 
baptized,  and  the  Spirit  of  God  descended  upon  him  ;  and  thus  he 
was  born  of  the  Spirit,  and  he  became  quickened  in  the  inner 
man."  l 

What  are  the  natural  and  necessary  results  of  such 
additions  to  the  Old  Testament? 

The  inference  is  that  the  Old  Testament  must  be  a 
back  number,  sadly  deficient,  particularly  in  its  revela- 
tions of  gospel  truth — a  product  of  the  dark  ages  as 
compared  with  the  dazzling  sunlight  revealed  in  the 
Book  of  Mormon. 

Still  worse.  If  these  things  are  true  then  the  Old 
Testament  is  deceptive  and  misleading.  A  half-truth 
is  usually  the  most  cunning  and  deceptive  of  lies.  If 
these  ancient  worthies  really  did  understand  all  the 
truths  revealed  to  us  in  the  New  Testament,  then  the 
Old  Testament  record,  as  we  now  have  it  is  a  mon- 
strous lie,  and  the  New  Testament  a  misnomer.  For 
according  to  this  theory,  the  new  covenant  began  with 
Adam  j  and  there  has  been  no  growth  of  doctrine,  or 
advance  in  revelation  from  his  day  until  now  ;  in  other 
words,  the  authors  of  our  Old  Testament  were  simply 

1  See  "  Pearl  of  Great  Price,"  p   145 


THE    BIBLE    UNDERMINED  8? 

floundering  about  in  midnight  darkness,  so  far  as  the 
great  truths  of  the  gospel  were  concerned. 

Nay,  worse,  for  according  to  the  Book  of  Mormon, 
and  "The  Pearl  of  Great  Price,"  the  Old  Testament 
worthies  above  mentioned  did  know  the  truth,  but  con- 
cealed their  knowledge  in  the  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment that  have  come  down  to  us.  They  acted  a  lie  ! 
For  in  the  Old  Testament,  as  we  have  it,  they  wrote 
and  spoke  and  lived  as  if  they  did  not  understand  these 
gracious  gospel  truths,  and  by  this  great  deception  kept 
the  whole  world  in  darkness  for  four  thousand  years, 
and  permitted  its  unnumbered  millions  to  perish  in  ig- 
norance of  the  truth  ! 

But  still  more  :  this  supposition  charges  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  with  the  cruelest  deception  and  hypocrisy. 
Any  careful  reader  of  the  four  Gospels  will  discern  that 
the  Lord  Jesus  read  the  same  books  that  are  now  found 
in  the  Old  Testament,  and  no  others,  proving  that  the 
prophecies  of  Enoch,  the  book  of  Abraham,  and  the 
words  of  God  to  Moses,  as  well  as  Zenoch,  Neum,  Ze- 
nos,  and  the  pretended  prophets  of  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon, were  unknown  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ — at  least 
unnoticed  by  him — and  yet,  secondly,  he  unhesitatingly 
and  constantly  holds  up  the  Old  Testament  as  he  had 
it,  and  as  we  have  it  to-day,  as  the  word  of  God,  the 
perfect  and  complete  word  of  God  down  to  or  until  his 
own  incarnation.  He  never  intimates  that  any  impor- 
tant revelation  is  wanting  or  that  there  is  any  possible 
lack.  On  the  contrary,  upon  almost  every  page  of  the 
four  Gospels  he  asserts  their  divine  origin  and  their 
completeness,  explains  their  meaning,  and  in  a  variety 
of  ways  so  presents  them  that  it  would  be  the  clearest 
impeachment  of  his  character  to  suppose  that,  after  all, 
the  best  portions  of  the  Old  Testament  were  kept  in 
hiding. 

But  plainer  still,  such  a  supposition  is  flatly  contra- 


88  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

dieted  by  the  express  statements  of  the  Apostles  Paul 
and  Peter. 

Paul  tells  us  very  plainly  that  the  great  mystery  of 
redemption  through  Christ  "In  other  ages  was  not 
made  known  unto  the  sons  of  men,  as  it  is  now  revealed 
unto  his  holy  apostles  and  prophets"  (Eph.  3:5); 
"  Even  the  mystery  which  hath  been  hid  from  ages  and 
from  generations,  but  now  is  made  manifest  to  his  saints  ' ' 
(Col.  1  :  26);  "  Kept  secret  since  the  world  began,  but 
now  is  made  manifest"  (Rom.  16  :  25,  26). 

The  Apostle  Peter  goes  so  far  as  to  tell  us  that  the 
angels  themselves  did  not  clearly  understand  the  plan 
of  redemption  until  it  was  consummated  in  the  death 
and  resurrection  of  Christ  and  the  advent  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  that  the  Old  Testament  prophets  "in- 
quired and  searched  diligently"  to  ascertain  the  time 
and  the  manner  of  Christ's  mission  here  ;  but  were  shut 
up  to  types  and  symbols  that  could  only  be  clearly 
understood  after  the  events  had  taken  place.  So  that 
"not  unto  themselves,  but  unto  us  they  did  minister." 

If  then  these  declarations  of  these  two  apostles  are 
true,  the  Book  of  Mormon  must  be  a  lie,  and  the 
assertions  of  "The  Pearl  of  Great  Price"  miserable 
fabrications,  daringly  and  blasphemously  added  to  the 
word  of  God. 

But  a  greater  than  the  Apostle  Paul  or  Peter  also 
gives  the  lie  to  these  false  assumptions.  The  New 
Testament  teaches  plainly  and  positively  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  as  a  person,  the  third  person  in  the  Godhead, 
was  not  manifested  to  the  world  until  Jesus  himself  had 
come  in  the  flesh  and  accomplished  his  mission. 

But  this  spake  he  of  the  Spirit,  which  they  that  believe  on  him 
should  receive  :  for  the  Holy  Ghost  was  not  yet  given  ;  because 
that  Jesus  was  not  yet  glorified.1 


1  John  7  :  39 


THE    BIBLE    UNDERMINED  89 

Nevertheless  I  tell  you  the  truth  ;  it  is  expedient  for  you  that 
I  go  away  ;  for  if  I  go  not  away,  the  Comforter  will  not  come  unto 
you  ;  but  if  I  depart,  I  will  send  him  unto  you.1 

Either,  then,  the  Book  of  Mormon  or  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  is  a  false  teacher. 

BIBLE    IMPROVED. 

Bible  incidents  are  uniformly  improved  upon  and 
embellished  in  the  Book  of  Mormon.  Out  of  a  large 
number  of  illustrations  note  the  following  : 

Jesus'  words  in  Matt.  23  :  37  are  thus  improved  (?): 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  there  came  a  voice  again  unto  the 
people,  and  all  the  people  did  hear,  and  did  witness  of  it,  saying, 
O  ye  people  of  these  great  cities  which  have  fallen,  who  are  de- 
scendants of  Jacob,  yea,  who  are  of  the  house  of  Israel,  how  oft 
have  I  gathered  you  as  a  hen  gathers  her  chickens  under  her 
wings,  and  have  nourished  you.  And  again,  how  oft  would  I 
have  gathered  you  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chickens  under  her 
wings  ;  yea,  O  ye  people  of  the  house  of  Israel,  who  have  fallen  ; 
yea,  O  ye  people  of  the  house  of  Israel,  ye  that  dwell  at  Jerusa- 
lem, and  ye  that  have  fallen  ;  yea  how  oft  would  I  have  gathered 
you  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chickens,  and  ye  would  not.  O  ye 
house  of  Israel  whom  I  have  spared,  how  oft  will  I  gather  you  as 
a  hen  gathereth  her  chickens  under  her  wings  if  ye  will  repent 
and  turn  unto  me  with  full  purpose  of  heart.  But  if  not,  O  house 
of  Israel,  the  places  of  your  dwelling  shall  become  desolate  until 
the  time  of  the  fulfilling  of  the  covenant  to  your  fathers.2 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  incidents  recorded  in  the 
New  Testament,  Christ  blessing  little  children  (see  Matt. 
19  :  13-15),  occupying  three  short  verses,  is  in  this  way 
embellished  and  improved  upon  until  it  has  the  appear- 
ance of  something  gotten  up  for  a  show,  is  unnatural  and 
distorted,  and  thoroughly  at  variance  with  the  beautiful 
simplicity  of  our  Saviour's  character,  and  occupies  two 
pages  in  the  Book  of  Mormon.3 

1  John  16  :  7  ;    see  also  John  14  :  16   26  ;  15  :  26  ;  16  :  13.     Also  Acts  2  :  33. 
2  p-  499-  3  See  pp.  516,  517. 


90  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

Quite  in  keeping  with  the  whole  spirit  of  the  book 
are  the  marvelous  results  of  gospel  labor  as  related  on 

page  544. 

Evidently  without  stopping  to  inquire  whether  his 
representations  were  plausible  or  even  possible,  whether 
they  accorded  with  human  experience  or  divine  prec- 
edents, or  are  the  opposite  of  all  past  records,  our 
author  blandly  informs  us  that  in  two  years  after  Jesus 
left  them  the  entire  population  of  both  continents  were 
converted  and  enrolled  in  Christian  churches  !  What 
has  the  New  Testament  to  compare  with  this  ?  The 
•book  of  Acts  covers  a  period  of  over  thirty  years  of  the 
most  incessant,  soul-absorbing,  Spirit-accompanying  la- 
bors— but  leaves  us  with  the  great  portion  of  the  old 
world  as  yet  unreached.  Only  here  and  there  a  solitary 
light  had  been  kindled,  scarcely  enough  to  reveal  how 
very  dark  was  the  pall  that  still  rested  upon  the  Eastern 
world. 

In  the  same  way  the  Bible  is  belittled  in  other  direc- 
tions. Noah  builds  but  one  ark  at  the  command  of 
God,  Jared  and  his  brother  have  eight.1  Moses  saw 
only  the  back  parts  of  Jehovah,  Jared' s  brother  saw 
him  face  to  face.2  Moses  must  needs  remain  in  the 
mount  forty  days  talking  with  God  before  his  face  may 
shine  with  the  heavenly  radiance,  but  Abinadi's  face 
"shone  with  exceeding  lustre,  even  as  Moses'  did" 
while  simply  preaching  to  a  crowd  of  wicked  men.3 
Moses'  unknown  burial  by  the  hand  of  God  is  not 
allowed  to  transcend  Alma's  exodus  out  of  life.4  Nor 
can  Daniel  read  the  handwriting  on  the  wall  better 
than  Aminadi,5  while  Elijah's  ascent  to  heaven  has  its 
counterpart  in  the  modest  story  of  Ether.6  The  fool- 
ish saying  that  went  abroad  among  the  disciples  of 
Christ,  that  the  Apostle  John  should  not  die,  was  fully 

1  P.  575.  2  p.  577.  3  p.  ,92.  4  p.  368.  &  P.  261.  6  P.  608. 


THE    BIBLE    UNDERMINED  9 1 

realized  upon  this  continent,  for  three  out  of  the  twelve 
apostles  were  allowed  to  remain  upon  earth  without 
tasting  death.1  Paul  knew  one  man  in  Christ  caught 
up  to  the  third  heaven  to  hear  unspeakable  words.  Our 
author  not  only  multiplies  the  one  by  twelve,  but  when 
the  twelve  returned  again  to  earth  he  modestly  states  : 

And  now  whether  they  were  mortal  or  immortal  from  the  day 
of  their  transfiguration  I  know  not. 

He  only  knew  they  were  from  that  time  blest  with 
strange  powers,  so  that  prisons  could  not  hold  them, 
pits  could  not  be  dug  deep  enough  to  retain  them. 

And  thrice  they  were  cast  into  a  furnace  and  received  no  harm. 
And  twice  were  they  cast  into  a  den  of  wild  beasts,  and  behold 
they  did  play  with  the  beasts  as  a  child  with  a  suckling  lamb  and 
received  no  harm.2 

Everywhere  the  Bible  is  belittled.  In  fact,  we  cannot 
resist  the  conclusion  that  the  author  of  this  book  is  bent 
upon  belittling  the  Bible,  casting  its  miracles  and  its 
wonderful  incidents  completely  in  the  shade,  at  what- 
ever strain  upon  the  reader's  credulity,  or  sacrifice  of 
reason  or  common  sense  ! 

JESUS    DISHONORED. 

But  after  all,  the  darkest  blot  upon  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon is  the  dishonor  it  puts  upon  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
Nothing  can  exceed  the  fulsome  flattery  it  lavishes  upon 
him — or  upon  an  imaginary  being  who  is  named  Jesus 
Christ.  Its  peans  of  praise  to  this  fancied  Saviour  are 
loud  and  continual.  And  yet  how  thoroughly  the  Book 
of  Mormon  supplants  and  dishonors  the  Jesus  of  the 
New  Testament  may  be  learned  by  only  the  briefest  re- 
lation of  the  facts. 

1  PP.  539,  546.  2  P.  540- 


92  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

The  Book  of  Mormon  mars  all  the  glory  and  beauty 
of  Christ's  life,  both  his  actions  and  his  words,  by  pre- 
senting him  to  us  in  the  role  of  a  second-hand  repeater. 
Nearly  every  wise  word  he  uttered,  or  revelation  of 
truth  he  made,  many  of  his  greatest  miracles  and  his 
divinest  acts  were  anticipated  and  repeated  hundreds  of 
years  before  he  came  in  the  flesh,  and  lose  their  freshness 
when  repeated  by  him  in  Judea.  The  glory  of  origi- 
nality is  gone  ;  not,  of  course,  to  his  Judean  hearers, 
who  knew  nothing  of  previous  Nephite  history,  but  to 
us  who  are  permitted  to  read  both  records.  The  con- 
fidence with  which  we  have  repeated  the  Roman  officer's 
honest  praise,  "Never  man  spake  like  this  man" 
(John  7  :  46),  is  suddenly  rebuked  as  we  reflect  that 
this  officer  knew  nothing  of  Jared's  brother,  of  Nephi, 
of  Alma,  and  other  worthies  who  lived  upon  this  con- 
tinent and  said  those  same  things  long  before.  The 
following  are  a  few  among  a  large  number  of  examples  : 

Jesus'  words  anticipated  by  Nephi,  Alma,  and  others  in  the 
Book  of  Mormon. 

"  And  he  numbereth  his  sheep,  and  they  know  him,  and  there 
shall  be  one  fold  "  (p.  57  ;  see  John  10  :  9,  14). 

"  He  layeth  down  his  own  life,  that  he  may  draw  all  men  unto 
him  "  (p.  112  ;  see  John  10  :  18  ;   12  :  32). 

"  He  that  endureth  to  the  end,  the  same  shall  be  saved  "  (p. 
124  ;  see  Matt.  24  :  13). 

"And  then  are  ye  in  this  straight  and  narrow  path  which  leads 
to  eternal  life  ;  yea,  ye  have  entered  in  by  the  gate  "  (p.  125  ;  see 
Matt.  7  :  14). 

"But  behold,  I  say  unto  you,  that  ye  must  pray  always,  and 
not  faint"  (p.  126;  see  Luke  18  :  i). 

"  Nevertheless  not  my  will  be  done  "  (p.  148  ;  Luke  22  :  42). 

"  And  he  shall  say  unto  me,  come  unto  me,  ye  blessed,  there  is 
a  place  prepared  for  you  in  the  mansions  of  my  Father  "  (p.  152  ; 
see  Matt.  25  :  34). 

"  And  then  will  I  confess  unto  them  that  I  never  knew  them  ; 
and  they  shall  depart  into  everlasting  fire,  prepared  for  the  devil 
and  his  angels  "  (p.  222  ;  see  Matt.  7  :  23  ;  25  :  41). 

"Sit  down  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  with  Abraham,  with  Isaac, 


THE    BIBLE    UNDERMINED  93 

and  with  Jacob,  and  also  all  the  holy  prophets  "  (p.  247;  see 
Matt.  8  :  11;  Luke  13  :  28). 

"Except  they  humble  themselves  and  become  as  little  chil- 
dren "  (p.  169  ;  see  Matt.  18  :  3). 

"  Behold,  the  axe  is  laid  at  the  root  of  the  tree  ;  therefore,  every 
tree  that  bringeth  not  forth  good  fruit  shall  be  hewn  down  and 
cast  into  the  fire  "  (p.  250  ;  see  Matt.  3  :  10). 

"Nevertheless  I  say  unto  you,  that  it  shall  be  more  tolerable 
for  them  in  the  day  of  judgment,  than  for  you,  if  ye  remain  in 
your  sins  "  (p.  259  ;  see  Matt.  11  :  22). 

"And  as  he  (Moses)  lifted  up  the  brazen  serpent  in  the  wilder- 
ness, even  so  shall  he  be  lifted  up  who  should  come.  And  as 
many  as  should  look  upon  the  son  of  God  with  faith,  having  a 
contrite  spirit,  might  live,  even  unto  that  life  which  is  eternal" 
(p.  452;  see  John  3  :   14,  15). 

"Abraham  saw  of  his  coming,  and  was  filled  with  gladness,  and 
did  rejoice  "  (p.  452  ;  see  John  8  :  56). 

Thus  rudely  torn  away  are  a  multitude  of  the  wisest 
sayings  of  Jesus,  and  his  most  startling  revelations  of 
truth.  Thus  anticipated  is  the  crown  of  glory  we  had 
fondly  placed  upon  his  brow  because  of  these  wonderful 
words  and  this  wisdom  ! 

In  the  same  way  some  of  his  divinest  acts  are  found 
to  have  been  only  a  parrot-like  imitation  of  things  famil- 
iar, because  often  repeated  hundreds  of  years  before 
him,  here  upon  this  continent. 

It  has  always  seemed  an  exhibition  of  self-control 
that  was  altogether  above  the  reach  of  a  mere  man,  that 
Jesus  fulfilled  so  perfectly  in  the  supremest  hour  and 
trial  of  his  life  the  words  of  the  prophet : 

He  was  oppressed,  and  he  was  afflicted  ;  yet  he  opened  not 
his  mouth  :  he  is  brought  as  a  lamb  to  the  slaughter,  and  as  a 
sheep  before  her  shearers  is  dumb,  so  he  openeth  not  his  mouth 
(Isa.  53  :7). 

But  how  it  takes  all  the  divinity  out  of  this  scene 
to  learn  that  he  was  only  imitating,  and  that  he  knew 
he   was   only  imitating   in  a  very  feeble   way  too,   his 


94  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

servants  Alma  and  Amulek,  who  something  over  one 
hundred  years  before  had  made  the  following  record  : * 

And  when  they  had  been  cast  into  prison  three  days,  there 
came  many  lawyers  and  judges,  and  priests  and  teachers,  who 
were  of  the  profession  of  Nehor  :  and  they  came  in  unto  the  prison 
to  see  them  and  they  questioned  them  about  many  words  ;  but 
they  answered  them  nothing.  And  it  came  to  pass  that  the  judge 
stood  before  them,  and  said,  Why  do  ye  not  answer  the  words  of 
these  people  ?  Know  ye  not  that  I  have  power  to  deliver  ye  up 
unto  the  flames  ?  And  he  commanded  them  to  speak  ;  but  they 
answered  nothing. 

And  as  if  to  cast  Jesus'  record  still  farther  into  the 
shade,  we  are  told  that  this  thing  was  kept  up  not  only 
the  three  days,  but  "many  days,"  being  all  the  time 
smitten  upon  the  cheeks,  and  tantalized  with  all  sorts 
of  cruel  mockings — withholding  of  food  and  water,  and 
stripping  them  of  their  clothing,  binding  them  with 
strong  cords  and  what  not. 

It  has  always  been  supposed  that  to  God  alone  be- 
longs the  prerogative  of  knowing  the  hearts  and  per- 
ceiving the  thoughts  of  the  children  of  men  (Jer. 
17  :  10  ;  Acts  1  :  24),  and  the  fact  that  Jesus  possessed 
this  power  has  been  accepted  as  proof  of  his  divinity. 
But  the  Book  of  Mormon  does  not  hesitate  to  tear 
this  crown  also  from  the  brow  of  our  Lord,  by  furnish- 
ing us  men,  even  young  converts,  who  can  equal  him 
in  this. 

Now  when  the  king  had  heard  these  words,  he  marveled  again, 
for  he  beheld  that  Amnion  could  discern  his  thoughts.  .  .  And 
the  king  said  :  Who  art  thou  ?  Art  thou  that  Great  Spirit  who 
knows  all  things?  .  .  How  knowest  thou  the  thoughts  of  my 
heart  ?  2 

Now  they  knew  not  that  Amulek  could  know  of  their  designs. 
But  it  came  to  pass  as  they  began  to  question  him,  he  perceived 
their  thoughts^  and  said  unto  them,  O  ye  wicked  and  perverse 
generation.3 

1  P.  277.  2  p.  2s9.  3  p.  263. 


THE    BIBLE    UNDERMINED  95 

Jesus  did  not  seem,  of  himself,  to  have  the  authority 
to  confer  the  Holy  Ghost.  To  his  disciples  he  said 
"  I  will  pray  the  Father  and  he  shall  give  you  another 
Comforter."  And  when  after  his  resurrection  he 
"breathed  "  on  his  disciples  and  said  "  receive  ye  the 
Holy  Ghost, ' '  it  was  fifty  days  before  the  baptism  of 
the  Spirit  came,  and  this  not  till  after  ten  days  of  care- 
ful watch,  and  continuous  prayer. 

But  here,  upon  page  329,  after  a  somewhat  wordy 
prayer,  we  have  this  statement  : 

Now  it  came  to  pass  that  when  Alma  had  said  these  words, 
that  he  clapped  his  hands  upon  all  them  who  were  with  him.  And 
behold,  as  he  clapped  his  hand  upon  them,  they  were  filled  with 
the  Holy  Spirit. 

While  Jesus  was  upon  the  high  mountain  whither  the 
devil  had  taken  him  (Matt.  4  :  8)  he  was  shown  "  all 
the  kingdoms  of  the  world  and  the  glory  of  them,"  and 
Moses  upon  Pisgah's  top  was  permitted  to  see  Palestine, 
only  a  little  country,  perhaps  seventy-five  by  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  miles  in  extent.  But  how  insignificant 
these  favors  compared  with  the  brother  of  Jared,  as  re- 
lated in  the  Book  of  Ether.1 

And  when  the  Lord  had  said  these  words,  he  shewed  unto  the 
brother  of  Jared  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  which  had  been, 
and  also  all  that  would  be  ;  and  he  withheld  them  not  from  sight, 
even  tinto  the  ends  of  the  earth  ;  for  he  had  said  unto  him  in 
times  before,  that  if  he  would  believe  in  him,  that  he  could  show 
unto  him  all  things — it  should  be  shown  unto  him  ;  therefore  the 
Lord  could  not  withhold  anything  from  him,  for  he  knew  that  the 
Lord  could  show  him  all  things. 

How  hollow  and  how  hypocritical  then  is  the  fulsome 
praise  and  honor  that  appear  upon  the  surface  to  be 
accorded  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Bible  !  They 

1  p.  578 


96  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

are  perpetually  kept  at  the  front.  The  authors  of  the 
Book  of  Mormon  are  all  the  time  shouting  hosannas — 
"Look  at  our  Jesus!"  "See  how  we  honor  and 
exalt  the  Bible  !  "  And  yet  at  the  same  time  stripping 
both  of  their  beauty  and  glory,  and  piling  the  stolen 
ornaments  upon  themselves  ! 

It  may  be  of  interest  to  add  here  the  sad  fact,  which 
may  easily  be  inferred  after  the  statements  already 
made,  that  what  is  true  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  is 
true  of  all  later  revelations,  and  of  the  present  theology 
of  the  Mormon  Church.  Jesus  is  constantly  held  to 
the  front,  lauded  to  the  skies  in  Mormon  literature, 
their  hymn  books  are  full  of  fulsome  praise,  their  mis- 
sionaries everywhere  attempt  to  make  it  appear  that 
they  are  thoroughly  orthodox  in  their  preaching  of 
Christ  crucified,  dying  for  our  sins,  etc. 

But  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  Lord  Jesus  has  no  place 
in  the  Mormon  system  of  salvation.  He  is  nowhere 
needed  ;  absolutely  ignored,  except  as  a  teacher  who 
has  a  little  share,  for  a  brief  period,  in  the  education 
and  training  of  a  pupil,  a  pupil  who  is  destined  by  and 
by  to  outstrip  his  teacher  and  become  a  center  of  a 
larger  circle  and  a  larger  life  than  the  teacher  ever 
aspired  to. 

When  a  man  becomes  a  Mormon  it  is  by  passing 
through  a  prescribed  system  of  works  in  which  Jesus 
plays  no  part,  except  as  above  suggested.  When  this 
same  person  has  entered  into  the  inner  sanctuary  of  the 
Mormon  edifice — secured  the  double  priesthood,  the 
Aaronic  and  the  Melchizedek  priesthoods — then  he  be- 
comes an  equal  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  possessed  of 
all  his  prerogatives  and  powers.  And  when  he  enters 
the  eternal  world  he  becomes  the  equal  of  Jesus'  Father 
and  our  Father,  the  God  Adam,  and  Jesus  is  lost  to 
view.  The  Mormon  has  become  a  God,  has  a  world 
of  his  own,  peopled  with   his  own  offspring  ;  and  this 


THE    BIBLE    UNDERMINED  97 

world  of  his  he  will  rule  over  and  control  during  the 
eternal  ages,  and  with  this,  neither  Jesus  nor  his  Father 
Adam  will  have  anything  whatever  to  do. 

So  that,  practically,  Mormon  theology  puts  Jesus 
right  where  the  Book  of  Mormon  puts  the  Bible,  some- 
thing to  be  quoted  from  and  lauded  to  the  skies  as  a 
bait  to  catch  the  unwary,  but  in  the  end  dethroned  and 
remanded  to  second  place  ! 

TO    RECAPITULATE. 

i.  The  Book  of  Mormon  teaches  that  the  Bible  is 
not  all  of  God' s  word,  it  is  only  a  very  small  part  of 
God's  word. 

2.  It  teaches  that  so  much  is  left  out  of  the  Bible 
that  men  cannot  be  saved  without  additional  revelation. 

3.  Its  teaching  makes  the  Old  Testament  writers 
gross  deceivers,  and  even  Jesus  himself  hypocritical 
and  deceptive. 

4.  It  everywhere  attempts  to  belittle  the  Bible,  and 
remands  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  the  position  of  a 
second-hand  repeater,  posing  as  original,  but  being  in- 
stead a  plagiarist  ! 

From  the  above  brief  review  we  are  quite  well  pre- 
pared to  hear  such  words  as  the  following  from  Mormon 
leaders  : 

I  told  the  brethren  that  the  Book  of  Mormon  was  the  most 
correct  of  any  book  on  earth,  and  the  keystone  of  our  religion, 
and  a  man  would  get  nearer  to  God  by  abiding  by  its  precepts, 
than  by  any  ether  book.1 

Wilford  Woodruff  is  the  prophet  and  seer  of  this  church.  .  . 
Joseph  Smith  was  a  prophet ;  Brigham  Young  was  a  prophet ; 
Wilford  Woodruff  is  a  prophet,  and  I  know  that  he  has  a  great 
many  prophets  around  him,  and  he  can  make  scriptures  as  good 
as  those  in  the  Bible.2 


1  "History  of  Joseph  Smith."  "Millennial  Star."  Vol.  XVIII..  p.  790. 
2  Apostle  John  Taylor,  Conference,  Salt  Lake  Tabernacle,  April  5,  1897 
G 


98  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

The  living  oracles  .  .  .  are  worth  more  to  the  Latter-day  Saints 
than  all  the  Bibles,  etc.1 

The  doctrines  which  our  Prophet  teaches  as  the  revelations  of 
God,  must  be  perfect  in  every  particular  ;  for  since  he  claims  to 
have  received  them  from  the  Lord  Almighty  at  first  hand,  by 
revelation,  there  is  left  no  room  to  plead  the  error  of  historians  or 
of  translators,  and  certainly  the  Lord  would  not  reveal  erroneous 
or  untrue  doctrine.2 

Brother  Joseph  [Smith]  turned  to  Brother  Brigham  Young  and 
said,  "Brother  Brigham,  I  want  you  to  take  the  stand  and  tell  us 
your  views  with  regard  to  the  living  oracles  and  the  written  word 
of  God."  Brother  Brigham  took  the  stand,  and  he  took  the  Bible, 
and  laid  it  down  ;  he  took  the  Book  of  Mormon,  and  laid  it  down  ; 
and  he  took  the  "Book  of  Doctrine  and  Covenants,"  and  laid  it 
down  before  him,  and  he  said,  "There  is  the  written  word  of  God 
to  us,  concerning  the  work  of  God  from  the  beginning  of  the 
world,  almost,  to  our  day.  And  now,"  said  he,  "when  com- 
pared with  the  living  oracles  those  books  are  nothing  to  me  ;  those 
books  do  not  convey  the  word  of  God  direct  to  us  now,  as  do  the 
words  of  a  prophet  or  a  man  bearing  the  Holy  Priesthood  in  our 
day  and  generation.  I  would  rather  have  the  living  oracles  than 
all  the  writing  in  the  books."  That  was  the  course  he  pursued. 
When  he  was  through,  Brother  Joseph  said  to  the  congregation  : 
"  Brother  Brigham  has  told  you  the  word  of  the  Lord,  and  he  has 
told  you  the  truth."  3 

One  practical  commentary  upon  the  above  teaching 
is  the  fact  everywhere  observed  in  Utah — that  the  Bible 
is  but  little  used  in  the  Mormon  Sunday-schools  as  a 
text-book. 

I  was  present  and  invited  to  speak  in  one  of  the 
largest  Sunday-schools  in  Utah — over  five  hundred 
present.  There  were  between  thirty  and  forty  classes 
and  only  two  classes  used  the  Bible,  both  classes  of  old 
people  who  had  become  so  used  to  the  Bible  in  early 
youth,  before  they  became  Mormons,  that  they  were 
not  inclined  to  give  it  up.  About  three  classes,  as  I 
remember,  used  the  Book  of  Mormon,  the  balance  of 

1  Elder  M.  W.  Merrill,  Conference.  Salt  Lake  City,  Oct.  4,  1897. 
2B.  H.  Roberts,  "  New  Witness  for  God."  p   225. 

3  Official  report,  October  Conference,  1897,  p.  22;  address  of  Pres,  Wilford 
Woodruff,  Head  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints 


THE    BIBLE    UNDERMINED  99 

the  school  were  divided  between  Parley  P.  Pratt's 
"Voice  of  Warning,"  "The  History  of  Joseph  the 
Prophet,"  the  "Book  of  Doctrine  and  Covenants," 
; '  Pearl  of  Great  Price, "  "  Sayings  of  Joseph  the  Seer, ' ' 
etc.,  Mr.  Pratt's  "Voice  of  Warning"  taking  the 
lead. 

A    MODERN    AFFAIR. 

But  it  will  be  of  interest  to  our  readers  and  we  hope 
of  value  to  Mormon  readers,  or  those  who  are  seriously 
considering  the  question  of  uniting  with  the  Mormon 
Church,  to  note  some  more  direct  and  positive  evidences 
that  the  Book  of  Mormon  is  a  modern  affair,  and  there- 
fore not  at  all  what  it  professes  to  be. 

Suppose  a  man  of  to-day  should  write  a  book  and  at- 
tach to  it  the  name  of  some  noted  author  of  two  hundred 
years  ago,  and  attempt  to  make  the  world  believe  that 
it  really  was  the  production  of  that  old  author,  hidden 
from  the  public,  for  certain  reasons,  until  now.  How 
could  the  truth  be  ascertained  ?  In  several  ways  ;  one 
way  would  be  this  : 

During  the  past  two  hundred  years  our  English  lan- 
guage has  been  undergoing  a  great  many  changes  ; 
many  old  words  have  become  obsolete  and  are  no 
longer  used,  while  thousands  of  new  words  have  been 
coined  from  the  various  languages  with  which  our 
language  has  come  in  contact,  or  have  grown  out  of 
important  events,  or  revolutions,  or  scientific  discov- 
eries that  have  during  these  two  hundred  years  occurred. 
Now,  if  upon  examination,  this  book,  purporting  to  be 
two  hundred  years  old,  is  found  to  be  written  in  the 
current  language  of  the  present  day,  full  of  words  and 
phrases  and  idiomatic  expressions  that  were  wholly 
unknown  to  the  English  language  two  hundred  years 
ago,  this  fact  alone  would  furnish  the  most  conclusive 
possible  proof  of  the  fraud.      It  could  not  have  been 


IOO  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

written  two  hundred  years  ago.      It  must  have  been 
written  during  the  present  age. 

Well,  now,  the  Book  of  Mormon  professes  to  have 
been  compiled  about  fifteen  hundred  years  ago,  by  a 
man  bearing  the  name  of  Mormon.  It  is  an  alleged 
abridgement  of  the  records  of  the  Nephites  for  a  period 
of  one  thousand  years  before  his  day.  If,  therefore, 
upon  a  careful  examination  we  find  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon filled  up  with  words  and  phrases  and  forms  of 
expression  that  are  known  to  be  entirely  modern — if  it 
has  allusions  to  modern  discoveries,  or  to  scientific  facts 
wholly  unknown  to  the  ancient  world — if  in  any  way 
the  author  of  the  book  is  "caught  napping,"  and  by 
word  or  thought  or  grammatical  form  betrays  the 
modern  origin  of  the  book — then  "counterfeit"  must 
be  written  across  its  pages,  and  its  author  be  held  re- 
sponsible for  the  sad  results  of  a  wicked  imposture. 

I.     MODERN    WORDS. 

There  are  a  multitude  of  modern  words  found  in 
the  Book  of  Mormon.  The  following  are  only  a 
few  :  <  <  Faculties, "  "  Popular, "  "  Priestcraft, "  "  State 
of  dilemma,"  "Synagogue,"  "Bible,"  "Jews," 
"Church,"  "Baptize,"  "Barges,"  "Immortal,"  and 
others.  We,  therefore,  insist  that  the  existence  of  so 
many  modern  words,  conveying  thoughts  and  ideas 
wholly  modern,  and  that  belong  to  a  civilization  never 
before  attained  upon  this  continent,  is  a  clear  proof  of 
fraud. 

II.    MODERN    REVIVAL    SCENES. 

It  is  well  known  that  in  Western  New  York,  seventy- 
five  to  ninety  years  ago,  during  the  boyhood  and  youth 
of  Joseph  Smith,  strangely  exciting  revival  scenes  were 
frequent,  notably  among  the  Methodists  of  that  day 
and  in  connection  with  camp  meetings,  and  that  in  just 


THE    BIBLE    UNDERMINED  IOI 

such  exciting  revival  scenes  Mr.  Smith  himself  received 
his  first  and  his  strongest  religious  convictions.  Many 
a  time  he  had  witnessed  men  and  women  fall  down 
under  the  influence  of  the  truth,  and  remain  apparently 
unconscious  for  hours,  sometimes  for  a  day,  and  in  rare 
instances  for  three  days  together — and  then  suddenly 
reviving,  rise  up  and  break  forth  into  the  most  extrava- 
gant expressions  of  joy  and  praise  to  the  Saviour  who 
had  redeemed  them.  Being  somewhat  ignorant  of  Bible 
truth,  and  particularly  of  revival  methods  generally,  he 
was  easily  led  to  suppose  that  these  strange,  weird  scenes 
were  models,  real  models  of  a  true  conversion. 

And  accordingly  we  find  that  nearly  every  instance 
of  a  conversion  related  in  the  Book  of  Mormon  is  cast 
in  this  one  particular  mold.  The  man  or  the  woman 
under  intense  emotions  falls  down  and  remains  in  an 
apparently  unconscious  state  for  periods  varying  from  a 
few  hours  to  three  days,  and  then  suddenly  reviving 
breaks  forth  into  ecstatic  expressions  of  joy  and  praise 
to  the  Saviour.      A  few  instances  may  here  be  given  : 

Alma,  one  of  the  principal  characters  of  the  book, 
after  being  reproved  by  an  angel  for  his  great  wicked- 
ness, 

became  dumb  that  he  could  not  open  his  mouth ;  yea,  and 
he  became  weak,  even  that  he  could  not  move  his  hands  ; 
therefore  he  was  taken  by  those  that  were  with  him,  and  carried 
helpless,  even  until  he  was  laid  before  his  father,  .  .  and  his 
father  rejoiced,  for  he  knew  that  it  was  the  power  of  God.1 

On  pages  290-293  we  have  an  account  of  a  large 
number  of  conversions,  beginning  with  one  of  the  kings 
of  the  Lamanites,  named  Lamoni,  who  after  earnestly 
crying  unto  God, 

fell  unto  the  earth  as  if  he  were  dead  .  .  .  and  he  lay  as  if  he 
were  dead  for  the  space  of  two  days  and  two  nights. 

1  P.  225. 


102  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

Preparations  were  made  for  his  burial,  but  Amnion 
interfered  and  promised  that  on  the  morrow  he  should 
rise.     And  sure  enough  on  the  third  day, 

It  came  to  pass  that  he  arose,  according  to  the  words  of  Am- 
nion, and  as  he  arose  he  stretched  forth  his  hand  unto  the  woman 
(  his  wife),  and  said  :  Blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord,  and  blessed 
art  thou  ;  for  as  sure  as  thou  livest,  behold,  I  have  seen  my  Re- 
deemer. .  .  Now  when  he  had  said  these  words,  his  heart  was 
swollen  within  him,  and  he  sunk  again  with  joy. 

Then  his  good  wife  followed  suite  : 

And  the  queen  also  sunk  down,  being  overpowered  by  the 
Spirit. 

Then  the  prophet  Amnion  began  to  pray,  but 

he  was  also  overpowered  with  joy ;  and  thus  they  all  three  had 
sunk  to  the  earth. 

Then  the  servants  of  the  king,  seeing  what  had  taken 
place,  seized  with  a  great  fear,  began  to  cry  unto  God  : 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  they  did  call  on  the  name  of  the  Lord, 
in  their  might,  even  until  they  had  all  fallen  to  the  earth. 

A  large  number  of  similar  incidents  are  found  in  the 
book. 

The  fact  is,  our  angel  so  blindly  copies  those  exciting 
camp-meeting  experiences  with  which  Mr.  Smith  had 
become  familiar,  that  he  falls  into  ridiculous  blunders, 
so  very  evident  as  to  give  the  whole  thing  away.  For 
instance,  when  the  queen  above  mentioned  came  out 
of  her  swoon,  she  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  saying  : 

O  blessed  Jesus,  who  has  saved  me  from  an  awful  hell !  O 
blessed  God,  have  mercy  upon  this  people. 

The  context,   however,  shows  that  this  woman  had 


THE    BIBLE    UNDERMINED  IO3 

never  so  much  as  heard  the  name  Jesus,  had  no  knowl- 
edge whatever  of  an  awful  hell,  or  that  ' '  this  people  ' ' 
stood  in  need  of  the  mercy  of  God.  The  introduction 
of  such  terms  into  the  mouth  of  such  a  person  is  an 
anachronism  that  convicts  of  fraud,  while  it  shows  the 
source  of  the  incident. 

But  there  are  other  indications  that  the  religious  ex- 
periences of  the  Book  of  Mormon  were  borrowed  from 
the  modern  camp  meeting.  The  book  abounds  in 
modern  camp-meeting  expressions.  The  following  are 
a  few  out  of  a  great  number  of  illustrations  which  easily 
betray  their  parentage  : 

Encircled  about  eternally  in  the  arms  of  his  love.1 

They  are  encircled  about  with  the  matchless  bounty  of  his  love.2 

They  were  encircled  about  with  everlasting  darkness  and  de- 
struction.3 

The  chains  of  hell  which  encircled  them  about  were  loosed  and 
their  souls  did  expand,  and  they  did  sing  redeeming  love.4 

My  brethren,  if  ye  have  experienced  a  change  of  heart,  and  if 
ye  have  felt  to  sing  the  song  of  redeeming  love.5 

For  the  arms  of  mercy  are  extended  toward  them.6 

Lay  down  the  weapons  of  their  rebellion.7 

Behold,  your  days  of  probation  are  past ;  ye  have  procrastinated 
the  day  of  your  salvation  until  it  is  everlastingly  too  late. 

By  the  power  of  their  words  many  were  brought  before  the  altar 
of  God,  to  call  on  his  name,  and  confess  their  sins.8 

III.    SOME    ADDITIONAL    SELF-BETRAYALS. 

The  law  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood  was  first  dis- 
covered by  Harvey  about  the  year  a.  d.  1619,  and 
the  fact  that  the  skin  has  "fores"  could  not  have  been 
known  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case  until  after  the  in- 
vention of  the  microscope.  Therefore  this  passage  pro- 
fessedly spoken  by  King  Benjamin  (125  b.  a),  must 
be  counted  a  fraud.9 

IP.  59.  2  P.  312.  3  Idem.  4  P.  246.  5P.247. 

6  P.  248.  7  P.  305.  8  p.  283.  9  See  p.  167. 


104  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

And  lo,  he  (the  Lord  Jesus  Christ)  shall  suffer  temptations,  and 
pain  of  body,  hunger,  thirst,  and  fatigue,  and  even  more  than  man 
can  suffer,  except  it  be  unto  death  ;  for  behold,  blood  cometh  from 
every  pore,  so  great  shall  be  his  anguish. 

The  fact  that  the  earth  and  the  planets  are  round  and 
revolve  around  the  sun,  is  also  a  modern  discovery. 
Had  it  been  known  anciently  either  upon  the  old  con- 
tinent or  this,  it  would  have  revolutioned  or  changed 
the  whole  past  history  of  the  globe.  No  civilized  people 
could  have  been  in  possession  of  this  great  fact  and  not 
been  incited  to  circumnavigate  the  globe. 

But  upon  page  324,  the  prophet  Alma,  while  labor- 
ing to  convince  the  skeptic  Korihor  that  there  is  a 
God,  proceeds  in  genuine  modern  style  with  his  argu- 
ment : 

The  Scriptures  are  laid  before  thee,  yea  and  all  things  denote 
there  is  a  God  ;  yea,  even  the  earth  and  all  things  that  are  upon 
the  face  of  it,  yea  and  its  motion ;  yea,  and  also  all  the  planets 
■which  move  in  their  regular  form  doth  witness  that  there  is  a 
Supreme  Creator. 

Upon  page  463,  another  pseudo  writer  (10  b.  c. ), 
while  describing  the  power  of  God,  gives  himself  com- 
pletely away  after  this  fashion  : 

Yea,  and  if  he  say  unto  the  earth,  move,  it  is  moved  ;  yea,  if 
He  say  unto  the  earth,  thou  shalt  go  back,  that  it  lengthen  out 
the  day  for  many  hours,  it  is  done  ;  and  thus  according  to  his 
word,  the  earth  goeth  back,  and  it  appeareth  unto  man  that  the 
sun  standeth  still ;  yea,  and  behold,  this  is  so,  for  sure  it  is  the 
earth  that  moveth  and  not  the  sun. 

A  modern  scientist  attempting  to  explain  Joshua's 
miracle. 

Upon  page  59,  Shakespeare  is  quoted  by  the  old 
man  Lehi  : 

Awake  !  and  arise  from  the  dust,  and  hear  the  words  of  a  trem- 


THE    BIBLE    UNDERMINED  IO5 

bling  parent  whose  limbs  ye  must  soon  lay  down  in  the  cold  and 
silent  grave,  from  whence  no  traveler  can  return. 

Sometimes  in  the  heat  and  excitement  of  his  speech, 
the  author  forgets  himself  for  the  moment ;  that  is,  for- 
gets the  ancient  role  he  is  acting  and  uses  the  past  te?ise 
in  describing  things  that  have  not  yet  occurred,  and  in 
quoting  passages  from  the  Bible  hundreds  of  years  be- 
fore the  passages  were  written.      Note  the  following  : 

And  assuredly,  as  the  Lord  liveth  for  the  Lord  hath  spoken  it, 
and  it  is  his  eternal  word,  which  cannot  pass  away,  that  they 
who  are  righteous  shall  be  righteous  still,  and  they  who  are  filthy 
shall  be  filthy  still.1 

Nephi  is  supposed  to  quote  this  nearly  seven  hundred 
years  before  it  was  spoken  by  the  Lord  in  Rev.  22  :  11. 

This  same  man  Nephi  quotes  the  Apostle  Paul  also 
in  the  past  tense  as  follows  : 

Behold,  the  Lord  hath  forbidden  this  thing  ;  wherefore  the  Lord 
God  hath  given  a  commandment  that  all  men  should  have  charity, 
which  charity  is  love.  And  except  they  should  have  charity  they 
were  nothing.2 

The  following  "give  away"  is  credited  to  the  same 
great  prophet  Nephi  : 

And  now,  if  the  Lamb  of  God,  he  being  holy,  should  have  need 
to  be  baptized  by  water,  to  fulfill  all  righteousness,  O  then  how 
much  more  need  have  we,  being  unholy,  to  be  baptized,  yea,  even 
by  water.  And  now,  I  would  ask  of  you,  my  beloved  brethren, 
wherein  the  Lamb  of  God  did  fulfill  all  righteousness  in  being 
baptized  by  water  ?  Know  ye  not  that  he  was  holy  ?  .  .  Where- 
fore, after  he  was  baptized  with  water,  the  Holy  Ghost  descended 
upon  him  in  the  form  of  a  dove.  And  again  :  it  sheweth  unto  the 
children  of  men  the  straightness  of  the  path,  and  the  narrowness 
of  the  gate,  by  which  they  should  enter,  he  having  set  the  exam- 
ple before  them.  And  he  said  unto  the  children  of  men,  follow 
thou  me.3 

IP.  80.  2P.  113.  s P.  124 


106  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

The  mythical  Alma  has  this  : 

Now  I  would  that  ye  should  remember  that  God  has  said  that 
the  inward  vessel  shall  be  cleansed  frst,  and  then  shall  the  outer 
vessel  be  cleansed  also.1 

There  are  many  other  similar  "give-aways,"  but 
these  are  sufficient.  In  fact,  one  such  passage  ought  to 
be  enough  to  settle  the  whole  question  of  the  ??wdern  origin 
of  the  book. 

IV.     KING    JAMES*    VERSION. 

But  why  need  we  specify  words,  single  words,  or  now 
and  then  an  isolated  passage,  when  there  are  sentences 
by  the  thousand,  and  whole  chapters,  whose  very  pres- 
ence in  the  Book  of  Mormon,  in  the  form  in  which  they 
are  found,  settles  the  question  of  the  modern  origin  of 
the  book  beyond  the  possibility  of  dispute.  Reference 
is  had  to  all  the  quotations  from  the  Bible,  embracing, 
as  has  already  been  shown,  so  large  a  part  of  the  book. 
They  are  every  one  of  them,  with  scarcely  an  exception, 
made  verbatim  from  our  modern  E?iglish  version,  the 
King  James'  version  of  the  Bible,  made  a  little  less  than 
three  hundred  years  ago. 

Many  honest  Mormons  have  probably  known  this 
fact  ever  since  they  first  knew  the  Book  of  Mormon — 
but  evidently  have  never  carefully  considered  what  that 
fact  means,  or  they  would  have  rejected  the  book  at 
once  as  a  fraud.  We  need  only  recall  the  manner  of 
preparing  the  Book  of  Mormon  as  related  by  the  eye- 
witnesses ;  for  they  all  agree  as  to  the  method  pursued 
by  Mr.  Smith.  He  has  the  golden  plates  before  him, 
covered  by  the  so-called  Reformed  Egyptian  characters, 
the  written  language  of  the  ancient  Nephites. 

After  adjusting  those  magical  spectacles,  called  the 
"Urim  and  Thummim  "  to  his  face,  he  looks  through 

ip.  4i8. 


THE    BIBLE    UNDERMINED  IO7 

them  at  the  first  character  upon  the  plate  ;  and  strange 
to  say,  these  spectacles  are  endowed  with  the  marvel- 
ous power  of  translating  that  character  into  the  English 
language.  "  Directly  under  the  character  when  viewed 
through  the  glasses  would  be  the  translation  in  Eng- 
lish. ' '  *  And  thus  the  Egyptian  characters  are  viewed 
one  after  another,  while  underneath  each  appears  its 
English  equivalent,  so  that  there  can  be  no  possible 
chance  to  mistake.  Mr.  Smith  has  simply  to  read  the 
word  or  sentence  as  it  appears  through  his  magic  spec- 
tacles ;  and  Mr.  Cowdry,  seated  a  short  distance  from 
Mr.  Smith,  with  a  blanket  hung  up  between2  them, 
copies  or  writes  each  sentence  as  it  falls  from  Mr. 
Smith's  lips.  And  to  prevent  the  possibility  of  mistake, 
the  sentence  or  word  remaifis  in  full  view  of  Mr.  Smith 
until  Mr.  Cowdry  has  had  time  to  write  it  out  in  full. 3 
And  if  Mr.  Cowdry  for  any  reason  misunderstands  Mr. 
Smith,  and  thus  makes  a  mistake,  the  sentence  will  not 
down  •  it  still  persists  in  remaining  there  until  the  mis- 
take has  been  corrected.  Neither  Mr.  Smith  nor  Mr. 
Cowdry  has  any  responsibility  in  the  matter,  except, 
simply,  the  one  to  announce  and  the  other  to  write 
down  whatever  appears  through  the  glasses  of  the 
former. 

If  the  sentences  are  awkwardly  expressed,  or  gram- 
matically incorrect,  or  contain  useless  verbiage,  unnec- 
essary repetitions,  or  have  errors  of  doctrine,  or  blun- 
ders of  any  kind,  it  is  not  at  all  the  fault  of  Mr.  Smith 
or  Mr.  Cowdry  ;  it  must  be  charged  to  the  Urim  and 
Thummim,  or  the  angel  that  works  it,  or  to  the  original 
writing.  These  men  only  announce  and  write  down 
what  the  spectacles  record. 

Whether  the  sentence  that  appears  through  the  spec- 

1  David  Whitmer,  quoted  in  "  Deseret  Evening  News,"  Dec    24,  1885. 

2  This  is  denied  by  some  authorities,  who  stoutly  insist  that  the  blanket  was 
only  to  hide  Mr.  Smith  and  his  scribe  from  curious  outside  eyes. 

3  Martin  Harris,  in  "  Myth  of  the  Manuscript  Found,"  p   91. 


IOS  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

tacles  is  really  a  translation  of  the  characters  upon  the 
plate,  they  have  no  possible  means  of  knowing.  Both 
are  uneducated  men  and  know  nothing  whatever  of  the 
Egyptian  characters  they  are  translating.  All  they 
claim  to  know  about  it  is  that  an  angel,  or  some  celes- 
tial personage  that  looked  like  an  angel,  as  they  sup- 
posed, appeared  to  them  and  told  them  that  the  words 
appearing  underneath  each  character  were  a  translation 
true  and  faithful  of  the  characters. 

Now,  on  the  supposition  that  Joseph  Smith  was  an 
honest  man,  it  is  proposed,  by  four  plain  and  simple 
facts,  to  show  positively  and  conclusively  that  his  a?igel 
was  a  fraud.  That  when  he  told  Joseph  Smith  that 
the  words  which  appeared  to  him  through  his  spectacles 
were  a  translation  true  and  faithful  of  the  characters  on 
the  plates  underneath,  he  told  a  lie. 

i.  As  they  proceed  with  their  work  of  translating, 
behold  there  appears  underneath  an  Egyptian  character, 
a  passage  from  our  Bible  ;  and  it  is  in  the  language  of 
our  King  James'  version,  precisely  as  it  was  translated 
by  the  English  bishops  in  16]  i. 

Now  that  Bible  passage  appearing  underneath  those 
Egyptian  characters,  is  either  a  translation  of  those 
characters,  or  it  is  not.  If  it  is  a  translation  made 
under  the  authority  and  by  the  direction  of  an  angel 
of  God,  then  we  are  confronted  with  this  wonderful 
phenomenon,  that  the  angel  should  translate  exactly  as 
those  English  bishops,  not  varying  in  a  single  word, 
although  there  are  several  thousand  whole  verses  of  this 
character,  thus  stamping  with  heaven's  seal  the  work  of 
those  grand  old  bishops,  proving  that  they  were  in- 
fallible, the  angel  agreeing  with  them  in  every  in- 
stance, even  to  the  wording  of  their  thoughts.1 

1  And  the  wonder  will  only  be  increased  when  we  learn  that  all  the  quotations 
from  the  Old  Testament  made  prior  to  the  appearance  of  Christ  here  upon  this 
continent— that  is,  all  the  direct  Bible  quotations  found  in  the  book  from  the 
first   to    the   four   hundred    and    fiftieth   page— are   translated   from    original 


THE    BIBLE    UNDERMINED  109 

But  the  scholarship  of  the  world  has  over  and  over 
again  declared  that  those  men  were  not  infallible ;  that 
they  did  make  mistakes  ;  no  very  serious  ones,  it  is 
true,  nothing  that  changes  any  great  doctrine  of  the 
Bible  ;  but,  nevertheless,  faults  enough  to  keep  them 
humble,  and  show  that  they  were  only  human.  And  if 
I  mistake  not,  our  Mormon  friends,  in  their  Articles  of 
Faith,  say,  ' '  We  believe  the  Bible  to  be  the  word  of 
God,  as  far  as  it  is  translated  correctly,'"  intimating 
that  it  was  not  altogether  translated  correctly  ;  whereas, 
the  testimony  of  spectacles  and  the  angel  is  that  the 
translation  is  absolutely  perfect,  without  fault. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  passage  appearing  through 
those  spectacles  is  not  a  translation  of  the  characters 
above  them,  but  is  simply  quoted  word  for  word  from 
our  Bible,  then  the  whole  claim  is  proven  false,  and  the 
book  must  be  pronounced  a  fraud.  For  if  in  one 
instance  the  sentence  appearing  underneath  does  not 
represent  perfectly  and  exactly  the  characters  above, 
is  not  a  bona  fide  translation,  then  the  same  thing 
might  occur  in  a  thousand  instances  ;  in  fact,  in  every 
instance,  so  that  the  characters  upon  the  plates  need 
have  no  connection  whatever  with  the  words  that  ap- 
pear underneath  them.  In  other  words,  if  Joseph 
Smith,  in  several  thousand  instances,  went  outside  of 
the  plates  for  his  sentences,  went  directly  to  our  Bible 
and  quoted  from  it,  what  proof  have  we  that  he  did  not 
go  outside  of  the  plates  for  every  other  sentence  found 
in  the  Book  of  Mormon  ? 

2.   The  second  fact  in  proof  of  the  deception  prac- 

brass  plates  engraved  in  the  pure  Egyptian  language  ;  plates  brought  by 
Nephi  from  the  city  of  Jerusalem  six  hundred  years  before  Christ. 

Just  think  of  it  !  Those  bishops,  two  hundred  years  ago,  translated  from  a 
Hebrew  text  that  has  been  handed  down  to  us  from  generation  to  generation, 
copied  and  recopied  a  thousand  times  over,  perhaps  ;  and  their  translation 
from  such  a  Hebrew  text  is  found  to  accord  exactly,  even  to  the  minutest 
particular,  with  a  translation  made  by  an  angel  directly  from  Egyptian  plates 
two  thousand  six  hundred  years  old,  less  one  single  transcription,  and  that 
made  by  the  inspired  prophet  Mormon. 


IIO  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

tised  by  the  angel  (?)  is  this.  According  to  the  testimony 
of  the  eye-witnesses  there  were  only  plates  enough  to 
furnish  from  one-fifth  to  one-tenth  of  the  contents  of 
the  Book  of  Mormon  upon  the  most  liberal  estimate 
possible. 

Martin  Harris,  David  Whitmer,  and  others,  are  very 
explicit  in  their  descriptions  of  the  plates.  They  were 
about  seven  by  eight  inches  in  size,1  each  plate  "  thicker 
than  the  thickest  tin,"  2  and  all  the  plates  together 
making  a  bundle  about  four  inches  thick.3 

That  is,  there  were  from  one  hundred  and  fifty  to 
two  hundred  plates  all  told.  But  only  about  one-third 
of  this  bundle  of  plates  were  used,4  so  that  the  entire 
Book  of  Mormon,  containing  six  hundred  and  twenty- 
three  closely  printed  pages,  was  translated  out  of  from 
fifty  to  sixty-six  pages  of  characters  engraved  by  hand  ! 

This  is  a  very  strong  point  if  fully  presented.  But 
inasmuch  as  facts  marked  number  three  will  show  that  it 
mattered  not  whether  there  were  fifty  or  five  hundred 
plates,  or  none  at  all,  we  can  dismiss  this  second  fact 
with  only  this  brief  mention. 

3.  The  plates  at  best  were  more  ornamental  than 
useful.  They  really  played  but  an  unimportant  part  in 
the  composition  of  the  Book  of  Mormon. 

(1).  Mr.  Smith's  father-in-law,  Mr.  Hale,  in  whose 
house  a  large  portion  of  the  translating  was  performed, 
tells  us  that  sometimes  the  curiosity,  and  occasionally 
the  wrath,  of  the  outside  world  became  so  great,  that 
Mr.  Smith  was  obliged  to  carry  his  plates  out  into  the 
woods  several  miles  distant,  and  hide  them  for  days  at 
a  time — but  the  translation  in  the  house  went  right  on 
all  the  same  ! 

(2)  Martin  Harris  testifies  that  the 

Prophet  possessed  a  seer  stone,  by  which  he  was  enabled  to 
1  "  Myth  of  Manuscript  Found,"  p.  89.  *  Ibid.         3  Ibid.  4  Ibid.,  p.  82. 


THE    BIBLE    UNDERMINED  III 

translate  as  well  as  from  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  and  for  con- 
venience he  then  used  the  seer  stone.1 

Whenever  Mr.  Smith  used  this  "seer  stone"  he 
could  translate  without  looking  at  the  plates  at  all ! 

(3)  But  the  following  story  told  by  one  of  the  most 
reliable  and  trusty  of  the  eye-witnesses,  David  Whitmer, 
caps  the  climax  of  absurdities,  and  settles  the  whole 
question  as  to  the  real  relation  these  plates  sustained  to 
the  Book  of  Mormon. 

Mr.  Smith,  during  the  progress  of  the  translation, 
grievously  offended  the  angel  who  was  assisting  him, 
and  as  a  punishment  the  angel  carried  away  into  heaven 
both  the  plates  and  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  so  that 
the  work  was  for  a  time  wholly  suspended. 

The  angel  being  in  possession  of  the  plates  and  spectacles, 
finally  when  Smith  had  fully  repented  of  his  rash  conduct,  he 
was  forgiven.  The  plates,  hozvever,  were  not  returned,  but  in- 
stead Smith  was  given  by  the  angel  a  Urim  and  Thummim  of 
another  pattern,  it  being  shaped  in  oval  or  kidney  form.  This 
seer's  stone  he  was  instructed  to  place  in  his  hat,  and  on  covering 
his  face  with  the  hat  the  character  and  translation  would  appear 
on  the  stone. 

This  worked  just  as  satisfactorily  as  the  old  method,  but  at  no 
time  thereafter  was  the  backsliding  Joseph  intrusted  with  the 
precious  plates.  However,  the  entire  portion  of  the  golden 
volume  which  the  angel  said  might  be  translated,  was  reduced 
by  the  nimble  amanuensis  to  readable  manuscript.2 

So  that  when  he  used  the  "Urim  and  Thummin  " 
he  could  translate  with  the  plates  hid  in  the  woods  ;  and 
when  he  used  his  "peep  stone"  the  plates  were  of  no 
use,  as  they  could  not  be  seen  ;  while  the  entire  closing 
portions  of  the  book  were  translated  (?)  with  the  plates 
in  heaven  /  / 

4.    Finally,   according    to    the    testimony  of   Martin 

1  "Myth  of  M.  F.f"  p.  91. 
2  Statement  of  David  Whitmer.     See  "Deseret  Evening  News,"  Dec.  24,  1885. 


112  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

Harris,  Mr.  Smith  often  used  the  "seer  stone"  in 
place  of  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  even  while  the  latter 
remained  in  his  possession — using  it  as  a  mere  matter 
of  convenience. 

It  seems  almost  too  bad  that  he  should  thus  inadvert- 
ently give  the  whole  thing  away.  You  must  understand 
that  the  Urim  and  Thummim  spoken  of,  and  called 
throughout  the  Book  of  Mormon  "the  Interpreters," 
had  been  provided  with  great  care  over  two  thousand 
five  hundred  years  ago  by  God  himself,  for  the  express 
purpose  of  translating  these  plates.  They  are  often 
mentioned  in  the  Book  of  Mormon  as  exceedingly  im- 
portant. They  were  preserved  with  the  greatest  care, 
handed  down  from  one  generation  to  another  with  the 
plates,  and  buried  with  them  in  the  hill  Cumorah  over 
one  thousand  four  hundred  years  ago,  as  sacred  as  the 
plates  themselves.  So  sacred  were  they  that  only  one 
man  was  allowed  to  handle  or  use  them,  the  highly 
favored  prophet,  Joseph  Smith  himself.  But  now,  alas  ! 
after  all  this  trouble  and  pains  and  care  on  the  part  of 
God,  and  on  the  part  of  so  many  holy  men  of  old, 
this  "Urim  and  Thummim"  is  found  at  last  to  be 
altogether  superfluous  ;  not  needed  at  all.  The  "peep 
stone"  found  in  a  neighbor's  well  will  do  the  work 
just  as  well — and  is  even  more  convenient,  "for  con- 
venience he  used  the  seer  stone." 

The  evidences  presented  in  this  chapter  are  abso- 
lutely conclusive  against  the  antiquity  of  the  Book  of 
Mormon.  We  have  not  questioned  the  fact  that  Mr. 
Smith  had  plates  ;  plates  too,  that  were  covered  with 
strange  characters.  We  do  not  choose  to  call  in  ques- 
tion the  testimony  of  the  eye-witnesses  upon  this  point. 
They  saw  said  plates,  "hefted  them,"  etc.  But  that 
is  as  far  as  they  knew,  and,  therefore,  as  far  as  we  can 
accept  their  testimony.  They  were  certainly  deceived 
as   to   the  character  of  those  plates.      They  were  not 


THE    BIBLE    UNDERMINED  I  13 

ancient  plates  and  contained  no  God-revealed  ancient 
record.  And  whether  Joseph  Smith  was  equally  de- 
ceived, or  was  a  wicked  impostor,  we  do  not  need  just 
now  to  decide.  That  the  book  he  has  presented  to 
the  world  as  the  word  of  God  is  a  miserable  fraud,  a 
book  to  be  execrated  and  hated  by  all  good  men  who 
love  the  truth,  has  been  most  abundantly  proven — 
while  the  next  chapter  will  present  evidences  that  no 
sane  mind  can  for  a  moment  question,  the  climax  of 
an  argument  that  we  believe  has  been  gathering  force 
and  overwhelming  power  with  each  successive  chapter. 
With  it  we  will  close  the  discussion. 


CHAPTER  V 

AMERICAN    ANTIQUITIES    VERSUS    THE    BOOK    OF 
MORMON 

THE  Book  of  Mormon  presents  to  us  two  widely  dif- 
ferent civilizations, — an  older  and  a  younger, — sep- 
arated from  each  other  by  a  space  of  fifteen  hundred 
years. 

The  oldest  began  four  thousand  years  ago,  occupied 
North  America,  existed  fifteen  hundred  years,  and 
then  entirely  disappeared.  The  second  began  in 
South  America  fifteen  hundred  years  later  than  the 
first,  gradually  extended  northward  until  both  conti- 
nents were  occupied,  reached  its  limit  in  one  thousand 
years,  or  fifteen  hundred  years  ago,  when  one  party, 
the  civilized  and  Christian  portion,  were  entirely  de- 
stroyed, and  the  wild,  barbarous  portion  remained,  the 
ancestors  of  the  Indian  races  of  to-day. 

In  apparent  confirmation  of  this  outline  of  history 
as  presented  to  us  in  the  Book  of  Mormon,  we  have 
three  well-known  and  undisputed  facts  : 

i.  That  the  whole  country,  including  both  North 
and  South  America,  was,  with  two  notable  exceptions,1 
occupied  by  wild  Indian  races  when  first  discovered  by 
Europeans  four  hundred  years  ago. 

2.  That  all  through  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi 
Valleys,  and  in  various  other  places  in  the  United 
States,  immense  mounds   of   earth  have  been    discov- 

1  The  exceptions  are  the  Incas  of  Peru  and  the  Aztecs  of  Mexico,  who  at 
the  time  of  the  discovery  of  America  by  Columbus,  were  almost  as  highly  civ- 
ilized as  any  peoples  that  had  ever  preceded  them  upon  these  two  continents. 

II4 


AMERICAN    ANTIQUITIES  I  I  5 

ered,  many  of  which,  upon  opening,  are  found  to  con- 
tain bones  of  men  and  animals,  stone  axes,  arrow 
heads,  implements  of  copper,  earthen  ware,  vases,  cups, 
pipes,  plates,  etc.,  some  of  them  of  very  beautiful  de- 
sign, revealing  a  high  degree  of  taste  and  skill  in  various 
branches  of  art. 

Farther  south,  in  the  region  of  Old  Mexico,  its 
southern  portions  particularly,  and  all  through  Central 
America,  down  into  South  America,  through  Peru,  and 
even  into  Chili,  have  been  found  still  more  remarkable 
remains,  ruins  of  immense  cities,  containing  vast  build- 
ings, palaces,  and  temples,  built  upon  the  most  mag- 
nificent scale,  of  granite,  marble,  and  various  kinds  of 
stone,  exhibiting  in  the  beauty  and  the  variety  of  their 
chiseling  and  in  their  skillful  construction  the  highest 
perfection  of  the  mason's  art,  in  their  elaborate  sculp- 
ture and  painting,  in  the  harmony  of  their  design,  and 
in  some  instances  in  the  strange  hieroglyphics  engraved 
upon  them,  the  most  abundant  proof  of  a  high  degree 
of  culture,  while  the  irrigating  canals,  the  carefully  and 
skillfully  prepared  roads  or  highways,  often  paved  long 
distances  with  stone,  the  immense  numbers  of  imple- 
ments of  husbandry  and  household  utensils  found 
among  the  ruins,  proved  the  existence,  in  the  ages  gone 
by,  of  a  prosperous,  wealthy,  agricultural  people,  quite 
highly  civilized,  presenting  a  strange  contrast  to  the 
wild  and  savage  Indians  who  now  occupy  those  re- 
gions. 

3.  From  the  fact  that,  in  Central  and  South  America, 
many  of  the  deserted  buildings  remained  in  a  good 
state  of  preservation,  while  farther  north  in  the  Ohio 
and  the  Mississippi  Valleys,  no  buildings  were  found, 
only  immense  mounds  of  earth  were  left,  the  conclu- 
sion was  very  natural  that  this  northern  civilization  was 
much  the  older  of  the  two.  This  view  was  generally 
accepted  by  students  of  American  antiquities  sixty  or 


Il6  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

seventy  years  ago,  when  the  Book  of  Mormon  was 
given  to  the  world.  It  is,  therefore,  not  at  all  surpris- 
ing that  the  friends  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  should 
present  all  these  facts  with  a  great  deal  of  earnestness 
and  confidence  in  proof  of  the  authenticity  of  the  book 
and  its  reliability  as  a  historical  record. 

But  there  happen  to  be  two  facts  fatal  to  the  preten- 
sions of  the  Book  of  Mormon  : 

i.  That  the  accepted  theory  of  seventy  years  ago 
that  evidently  formed  the  historical  basis  of  the  Book 
of  Mormon,  has  been  proved  untrue.  The  Mound 
Builders  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi  Valleys  do 
not  represent  the  oldest,  but  the  youngest,  by  far  the 
younger  of  the  two  civilizations  already  mentioned. 

2.  That  the  author  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  who- 
ever he  may  have  been,  had  so  much  of  the  marvelous 
in  his  make-up,  so  strong  a  disposition  to  overdo  every- 
thing he  attempted,  that  he  has  gone  beyond  his  depth 
almost  everywhere,  presenting  a  multitude  of  state- 
ments that  the  researches  of  scholars  and  the  investiga- 
tions of  antiquarians  have  proved  to  be  wholly  without 
a  foundation  in  fact. 

While  a  careful,  judicious  writer,  seventy  years  ago, 
might  have  prepared  a  book,  a  religious  romance,  cov- 
ering that  period  in  ancient  history  which  the  Book  of 
Mormon  purports  to  cover — a  book  that  would,  upon 
careful  examination,  have  found  a  multitude  of  its 
statements  corroborated  by  the  facts  as  since  learned 
from  the  researches  of  scholars — the  ill-starred  author 
of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  as  if  purposely  blinded  by 
the  gods,  has  fallen  into  so  many  blunders,  such  odd 
and  unnecessary  mistakes  in  almost  every  direction, 
that  one  scarcely  knows  whether  most  to  pity  his  igno- 
rance and  want  of  judgment,  or  to  frown  with  a  right- 
eous indignation  upon  his  wicked  deception  and  his 
monstrous    assumptions.       He    blunders    everywhere. 


AMERICAN    ANTIQUITIES  I  I  7 

While  in  some  few  general  outlines,  for  reasons  easily- 
understood,  he  hits  the  mark  sufficiently  to  give  Mor- 
mon orators  an  opportunity  to  grow  eloquent  over  re- 
markable coincidences,  yet  as  soon  as  we  leave  general 
outlines  and  descend  to  particulars,  it  unfortunately 
happens  that  our  good  Mormon  orators  get  sadly 
"left,"  for  almost  every  well-established  fact  discov- 
ered proves  the  Book  of  Mormon  in  error — that  it  was 
simply  guessing,  and  with  a  sadder  fatality  than  falls  to 
most  guessers,  since  it  fails  nine  times  in  ten,  as  we 
shall  see. 

The  Written  Language  of  Ancient  America.  It 
hardly  matters  where  we  begin.  Suppose  we  give 
attention  first  to  Mr.  Smith's  fatal  error  regarding  the 
written  language  of  these  ancient  peoples. 

The  Book  of  Mormon  tells  us  that  the  language  in 
use  upon  this  continent  when  Mormon  and  Moroni 
compiled  the  Book  of  Mormon,  fifteen  hundred  years 
ago,  was  a  sort  of  ' '  Reformed  Egyptian. ' ' 

And  now  behold,  we  have  written  the  record  according  to  our 
knowledge,  in  the  characters  which  are  called  the  reformed  Egyp- 
tian, being  handed  down  and  altered  by  us  according  to  our  man- 
ner of  speech.1 

I  make  a  record  in  the  language  of  my  father,  which  consists 
of  the  learning  of  the  Jews,  and  the  language  of  the  Egyptians.2 

In  connection  with  this,  two  facts  are  clearly  pre- 
sented in  the  Book  of  Mormon. 

i.  This  "reformed  Egyptian"  was  the  universal 
language  of  the  people  upon  both  continents.  It 
must  have  been  the  written  and  spoken  language  of 
Nephites  and  Lamanites  alike,  for  Nephi  and  Laman, 
the  founders  of  the  two  nations,  were  own  brothers, 
and,  of  course,  spoke  the  same  language,  the  language 

i  p.  57o.  2  p.  1. 


Il8  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

of  their  father,  made  up  of  the  learning  of  the  Jews 
and  the  language  of  the  Egyptians. 

2.  The  center  of  this  ancient  civilization,  where  this 
"reformed  Egyptian"  was  written  and  spoken  in  its 
greatest  purity,  was  the  southern  portions  of  North 
America,  including  Central  America  and  the  northern 
coasts  of  South  America. 

Here  the  Nephites  flourished  longest,  built  their 
largest  cities  and  their  most  magnificent  palaces  and 
temples. 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  I  (Mormon),  being  eleven  years  old, 
was  carried  by  my  father  into  the  land  southward,  even  to  the 
land  of  Zarahemla,  the  whole  face  of  the  land  having  become 
covered  with  buildings,  and  the  people  were  as  numerous  almost 
as  it  were  the  sand  of  the  sea.1 

Now  we  will  most  abundantly  prove  that  this  boy 
Mormon  was  a  myth,  and  that  all  these  exaggerated 
statements  of  immense  populations  were  the  purest 
fabrications  ;  and  yet  it  is  pertinent  to  our  discussion 
to  know  that  from  the  Book  of  Mormon's  standpoint 
this  boy  Mormon  either  began  his  journey  north  of 
Central  America  and  passed  through  Central  America, 
or  he  started  at  some  point  in  Central  America. 

With  this  agrees  Apostle  Orson  Pratt : 2 

The  northern  portions  of  South  America,  and  also  Central 
America,  were  the  most  densely  populated.  Splendid  edifices, 
palaces,  towns,  forts,  and  cities  were  reared  in  all  directions. 

Now,  fortunately  or  unfortunately,  Joseph  Smith  has 
preserved  for  us  and  for  the  inspection  of  the  world,  a 
specimen  of  the  characters  found  upon  the  plates  from 
which  he  claims  to  have  translated  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon. He  transcribed  a  few  of  the  characters  from  the 
plates  as  specimens : 

1  P-  549-  "  See  *'  Orson  Pratt's  Works,"  p.  32. 


AMERICAN    ANTIQUITIES  119 

By  this  timely  aid  I  was  enabled  to  reach  the  place  of  my  des- 
tination in  Pennsylvania,  and  immediately  after  my  arrival  there  I 
commenced  copying  the  characters  of  the  plates.  I  copied  a  con- 
siderable number  of  them.1 

These  characters  thus  transcribed,  or  a  portion  of 
them  at  least,  may  be  found  to-day  in  the  Mormon 
Museum,  Salt  Lake  City,  very  neatly  engraved,  with 
Joseph  Smith's  own  signature  attached  in  token  of  their 
genuineness.  The  obliging  superintendent  will  take 
pleasure  in  exhibiting  them  to  all  Gentiles  or  others 
who  visit  the  museum. 

Upon  the  next  page  may  be  seen  a  fac-simile  of  the 
above  characters,  and  the  reader  is  asked  to  examine 
them  carefully,  reading  attentively  the  accompanying 
description.  The  longer  the  attention  of  the  reader  is 
concentrated  upon  them  the  more  modern  and  familiar 
they  will  become  until  Professor  Antrum's  designation, 
a  "hoax,"  will  not  seem  at  all  surprising  even  to  a 
candid  Mormon. 

Please  look  at  these  characters  one  by  one.  The 
second  character  is  the  capital  letter  H,  as  written. 
The  third  is  a  figure  4  with  a  little  embellishment  at 
the  bottom.  The  two  next  are  interrogation  points 
laid  down  horizontally.  Passing  the  next  one,  we  come 
to  two  half  moons,  then  a  figure  4  with  an  embellish- 
ment at  the  top.  The  next  is  a  figure  6  with  a  slight 
addition  at  the  bottom.  Then  a  very  good  letter  t  and 
a  capital  A  with  a  dot  instead  of  a  bar  in  the  center. 
Then  a  cross  f  with  another  cross  inverted  4.,  followed 
by  some  more  half  moons.  If  you  add  an  extensive 
flourish  at  the  bottom  of  a  plain  capital  S,  throw  a 
crescent  over  a  dagger  or  an  inverted  cross,  add  the 
letter  U,  a  figure  2,  tip  over  a  figure  3,  underscore 
another,  and  put  in  a  few  punctuation  marks,  and  you 

1  See  "  Pearl  of  Great  Price,"  p.  95. 


20  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 


ft 


30 


^J  3>         have  the  first  line  of  these 

3  ^>  remarkable    ancient  char- 

^  \i  jV     acters    described.      From 

the  second  line  the  reader 
may    easily     recognize    a 
)P  ^0  ^      farmer's     rake-head,     the 

a  l  ^     letters  f,  v,   H,  E,  D,  J, 

and  T,  and  the  figure   2 
with    a   4  and  a  5   nicely 
^^  j^^  ^      combined     together.       In 

r  ^7  il     the  third  line,    while   the 

n»  1*  ^  ^.     majority  of  the  characters 

^SS*  pOi  ^j     are  repetitions  of  ename- 

ls 0  \  Vj  5^f     ters  found  in  the  two  pre- 

vious lines,  three  or  four 
of  them  are  certainly  orig- 
^w  *  \  ^    inal,   if  not   copied  from 

^  t    I  C^     the  alphabet  of  some  for- 

VL  *v  #    eign  language. 

%i^  2^  ^^*"        Another  copy  of  these 

^  ^J  "*    characters,  secured  at  some 

^S  nF?  ^D    expense   and    trouble   di- 

\»>  ^3  ^     rectly    from    the    original 

(5^  f^  >3     C0Py  made  by  Mr.  Smith 

^^  ^4  5^     himself,  and  in  the  posses- 

V^  ^O     sion  of  Mr.    David  Whit- 

^                                <Vf  mer'   °^  Ricnmond,    Mo., 

C**A  when  I  visited  him  in  1885, 

^^  is   in    my  possession.      It 

^^  does  not  differ  materially 

q\               N               C  from  this. 

^6              "3              (^  Well,  now,  unfortunate- 

\*J               3               ^N  ly  for    the    claims  of  the 

Book  of  Mormon,  we  are 


i 


Q 


S**3  ^f  ^J     a^e  to  learn  precisely  what 

C/t^  Mi  *\     kind    of    characters    were 


AMERICAN    ANTIQUITIES  121 

used  in  Central  America  by  its  ancient  inhabitants. 
They  have  been  preserved  in  imperishable  marble, 
engraved  upon  stone  in  such  a  way  as  to  remain  to 
the  end  of  time  a  silent  though  solemn  rebuke  to  the 
false  and  foolish  pretensions  of  the  author  of  this  book. 
In  the  ruins  of  the  two  oldest  cities  in  Central  Amer- 
ica, Copan  and  Palenque,  are  found  in  abundance  the 
strange  hieroglyphics,  the  written  language  of  the 
people  who  once  inhabited  those  old  cities.  Thou- 
sands of  these  mysterious  characters  are  scattered 
about,  engraven  over  ruined  doorways  and  arches, 
upon  the  sides  and  backs  of  hideous-looking  idols, 
carved  in  stone,  upon  marble  slabs,  on  the  sides  of  im- 
mense pillars,  here  and  there  through  the  ruins  of  mag- 
nificent palaces  and  monster  heathen  temples. 

The  magnificent  sculptured  hieroglyphics  which  cover  the  sides 
and  backs  of  these  huge  idols  no  doubt  could  tell  the  sealed  story 
of  Copan's  greatness  and  the  attributes  of  its  many  gods,  were 
the  keys  once  discovered.  Everything  is  covered  with  these  sig- 
nificant symbols,  differing  slightly  from  those  at  Palenque  ;  but 
who  will  read  them  ?  The  top  of  the  altar  is  covered  with  thirty- 
six  squares  of  hieroglyphics.1 

We  present  the  reader  some  very  good  specimens  of 
these  hieroglyphics  copied  from  actual  photographs. 

These  same  hieroglyphics  have  been  preserved  in 
other  forms — for  the  ancient  Mayas  had  books,  real 
books,  a  large  number  of  which  were  found  in  Central 
America  upon  its  occupation  by  the  Spaniards  three 
hundred  years  ago — but  ruthlessly  destroyed  by  the  su- 
perstitious Catholic  priests.  An  examination  of  the  three 
that  are  now  known  to  be  preserved,  shows  the  same  char- 
acters that  are  found  upon  the  stone  tablets,  idols,  etc. , 
and  represent  the  actual  written  language  of  the  ancient 
Mayas,  a  people  who  are  known  to  have  occupied  Cen- 
tral America  at  the  very  time,  and  covering  the  whole 

1  "  North  American  Ant.,"  by  J.  T.  Short ;  pp.  404,  405. 


122 


THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 


period,  when,  according  to  the  Book  of  Mormon,  the 
Nephites  lived  and  flourished  there. 

In  addition  to  these  stones  and  stucco  records,  the  Mayas  had 
books,  which  Bishop  Landa  (a  Catholic  bishop  of  three  hundred 
years  ago)  describes  as  written  on  a  large  leaf  doubled  in  folds, 


Hieroglyphics, on  the  Copan  Statue. 


and  enclosed  between  two  boards,  which  they  ornamented.  They 
wrote  on  both  sides  of  the  paper,  in  columns  accommodated  to 
the  folds.  The  paper  they  made  from  the  roots  of  trees  and 
coated  it  with  a  white  varnish  on  which  one  could  write  well. 
Bishop  Landa  confesses  to  having  burned  a  great  many  of  the 
Maya  books  because  they  contained  nothing  in  which  were  not 
superstitions  and  falsities  of  the  devil.   .   .   Three  of  the    Maya 


AMERICAN    ANTIQUITIES  123 

manuscripts   are  known  to  have    escaped  the  vandalism    of  the 
early  fathers.1 

One  of  the  three  is  called  the  "Troano  Manuscript,"  and  is 
described  as  written  on  a  strip  of  maguey  paper  about  fourteen 
feet  long  and  nine  inches  wide.  It  is  folded  fanlike  in  thirty-five 
folds,  presenting  when  shut  much  the  appearance  of  a  modern 
large  octavo  volume.  The  hieroglyphics  cover  both  sides  of  the 
paper.2 

Will  the  reader  carefully  examine  these  characters, 
and  then  look  back  again  to  page  120.  Those  are  the 
characters  Joseph  Smith  tells  us  were  universally  used 
in  Central  America  one  thousand  five  hundred  and 
two  thousand  years  ago,  while  the  ruins,  the  engraved 
stones,  the  chiseled  marble,  tell  us  that  these  were  the 
characters  actually  used  in  that  locality  and  at  that 
time.  Look  at  the  two  attentively  ;  see  if  you  can  dis- 
cover any  likeness  whatever  between  them.  A  woful 
fatality,  is  it  not  ?  that  there  should  not  happen  to  be 
even  one  of  Mr.  Smith's  characters  that  bears  a  family 
likeness  or  the  least  particle  of  resemblance  to  the 
characters  actually  used  by  the  ancient  inhabitants  of 
Central  America  ! 

And  we  gain  no  crumb  of  comfort  by  separating  these 
complex  combinations  of  letters  and  words  into  their 
simplest  elements.  The  ancient  Maya  alphabet  bears 
no  more  resemblance  to  Mr.  Smith's  characters  than 
when  combined  into  words. 

The  task  is  utterly  hopeless  to  find  any  possible  or 
conceivable  resemblance  between  these  simple  elements 
of  sound  and  the  characters  presented  to  the  world  by 
Mr.  Smith. 

But  we  have  not  yet  done  with  these  characters. 
For  the  Book  of  Mormon  tells  us  of  a  civilization  ex- 
tending generally  over  both  continents.  In  fact,  of  a 
period   covering  nearly  two   hundred  years,  when  the 

l  J.  T.  Short,  p.  420.  2  j.  T.  S.,  p.  422. 


124  THE    MORMONS   AND   THEIR    BIBLE 


8.     K*/^    e 


9. 


10. 


n 


17.    & 


h        18. 

(Variation  of  a  n.l) 
(Varialio  of  ^) 


>-8D 


11.     §    cs        20.  J  [jj  pp 
k       21   (Sftcu 


4.  flf)   b  13  @    1  22.  gfku 

5.  ©    b  14.  ^    I  23.  ^  t* 
:  15.  £g)  m  24.  ^ 
i  16.   J    n 


25. 

26. 


? 


27.  m  * 


oJLo  ma  me  or  mo. 

6  tt 


The  Maya  Alphabet. 


AMERICAN    ANTIQUITIES  125 

entire  population  of  both  continents  were  converted 
and  actually  enrolled  as  members  of  the  churches 
everywhere  organized.  During  all  this  happy  time  the 
arts  of  war  were  forgotten  and  the  highest  possible 
Christian  civilization  was  enjoyed.  During  all  this 
period  the  people  were  not  only  rapidly  increasing  in 
numbers,  but  also  in  wealth,  in  the  cultivation  of  the 
fine  arts,  in  the  building  of  magnificent  buildings,  pal- 
aces, and  temples,  and  in  the  general  prevalence  of  edu- 
cation.1 

As  early  as  forty-five  years  before  Christ  we  have  the 
following  story  of  the  large  amount  of  literature  already 
in  existence.2 

And  now  there  are  many  records  kept  of  the  proceedings  of 
this  people,  by  many  of  this  people,  which  are  particular  and  very 
la7'ge,  concerning  them  ;  but  behold  a  hundredth  part  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  this  people,  yea  the  account  of  the  Lamanites,  and 
of  the  Nephites,  and  their  wars,  and  contentions,  and  dissensions, 
and  their  preaching,  and  their  prophecies,  and  their  shipping,  and 
their  building  of  ships,  and  their  building  of  temples,  and  of  syna- 
gogues, and  their  sanctuaries,  and  their  righteousness,  and  their 
wickedness.  .  .  cannot  be  contained  in  this  work  ;  but,  behold, 
there  are  many  books  and  many  records  of  every  kind,  and  they 
have  been  kept  chiefly  by  the  Nephites  ;  and  they  have  been 
handed  down  from  one  generation  to  another  by  the  Nephites. 

We  should,  therefore,  certainly  expect  to  find,  in 
every  portion  of  both  continents,  the  same  evidences 
of  an  ancient  civilization  as  are  found  in  Central 
America.  We  ought  to  find  not  only  the  remains  of 
great  cities,  filled  with  the  ruins  of  magnificent  temples 
and  palaces  all  through  these  "  valleys  of  the  moun- 
tains," through  the  various  States  and  Territories  and 
all  over  South  America  as  well.  But  especially  among 
these  ruined  temples  and  over  the  doorways  of  palatial 
residences   we    should    find,    in    thousands   of  places, 

1  Pp-  544,  545-  2  P-  434- 


126  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

these  reformed  Egyptian  characters  engraved  upon 
marble  blocks  and  granite  pillars,  brass  plates  by  the 
thousand,  inscribed  tablets  of  gold  and  silver,  remnants 
of  old  parchment  leaves  with  passages  of  scripture,  his- 
tories of  wars,  lives  of  sages  and  philosophers,  text- 
books for  schools,  poetic  effusions  from  many  a  Homer 
and  Virgil,  eloquent  sermons,  and  prophecies  by  the 
cartload,  scattered  here  and  there  amid  the  rubbish  of 
ten  thousand  deserted  and  ruined  cities  all  over  both 
these  broad  continents. 

But  need  we  say  that  just  the  contrary  of  all  this  is 
found  to  be  true.  The  statements  of  the  scholars  and 
antiquarians  are  unanimous,  that  no  positive  evidences 
of  an  ancient  written  language  exist  in  any  other  por- 
tion of  either  continent  except  Central  America. 

Hence,  instead  of  finding  any  proofs  that  one  uni- 
versal written  language  was  used  all  over  both  conti- 
nents for  hundreds  of  years,  and  down  to  so  late  a  date 
as  384  a.  d.  ,  we  discover  proofs  plain  and  conclusive 
that  no  universal  language  ever  existed  within  the  his- 
torical period,  and  that  no  written  language  existed  any- 
where upon  either  continent,  except  in  a  very  small 
section,  embracing  the  northeastern  portion  of  Central 
America,  now  known  as  Yucatan.  Even  the  substitutes 
for  a  written  language  are  clearly  described  to  us,  the 
"quippu"  of  Peru  and  the  " picture  writing"  of 
Mexico. 

The  assertions,  therefore,  of  the  Book  of  Mormon, 
that  one  civilization  and  one  written  language  existed 
generally  all  over  both  continents,  are  reduced  to  the 
sheerest  nonsense  and  a  practicable  impossibility. 

But  we  are  not  done,  even  yet,  with  the  clear  evi- 
dences these  written  languages  furnish  against  the  rep- 
resentations of  the  Book  of  Mormon.  Had  Joseph 
Smith  kept  his  specimen  characters  to  himself  it  would 
have  availed  him  little,  so  long  as  he  has  placed  before 


AMERICAN    ANTIQUITIES  12/ 

the  world  a  professed  tra7islation  of  the  whole.  For 
there  are  certain  words  in  every  language  that  are  not 
translatable — are  simply  transferred  from  one  language 
to  another.  We  refer  to  proper  nouns,  names  of  men, 
of  cities,  rivers,  countries,  and  such  like.  These  are 
in  a  measure  unchangeable — in  all  languages  they  re- 
main the  same.  For  instance,  we  read  in  the  Old 
Testament  far  back,  three  and  four  thousand  years  ago, 
such  names  as  Damascus,  Jerusalem,  Babylon,  Nineveh, 
Samaria,  Persia,  Egypt,  Ethiopia.  In  the  New  Testa- 
ment Ephesus,  Antioch,  Athens,  Corinth,  Rome  ;  we 
read  of  the  island  of  Cyprus  and  Malta,  of  the  countries 
of  Syria,  Italy,  and  Spain  ■  and  we  pick  up  our  modern 
school  geographies  to  find  all  these  names  more  or  less 
fully  preserved. 

But  we  are  informed  in  the  Book  of  Mormon,  that  the 
present  Indian  races  are  the  true  and  lineal  descendants 
of  the  ancient  Lamanites,  whose  language,  spoken  and 
written,  was  identical  with  the  Nephites,  at  least  during 
the  last  four  hundred  years  of  the  latter' s  history.  We 
should,  therefore,  expect  to  find,  we  must  necessarily 
find,  if  the  Book  of  Mormon  is  true,  that  the  ancient 
names  of  men,  cities,  and  countries  will  be  preserved 
at  the  present  day.  The  language  may  have  greatly 
changed  in  many  particulars — but  no  matter  how  far 
degenerated  during  the  past  one  thousand  four  hundred 
years,  there  could  by  no  possible  means  be  so  great  a 
change  that  ordinary  proper  names  could  not  be  recog- 
nized. In  their  general  sound  they  must  remain  the 
same.  But  it  can  be  shown  from  competent  authori- 
ties that  the  language  of  a  portion  at  least  of  the  peo- 
ple of  Central  America  has  not  changed.1     The  natives 

1  The  following  quotations  show  that  the  language  has  not  been  greatly 
changed  : 

"  The  language  of  the  ancient  Mayas,  strange  as  it  may  appear,  has  sur- 
vived all  the  vicissitudes  of  time,  wars,  political  and  religious  convulsions.  It 
has,  of  course,  somewhat  degenerated  by  the  mingling  of  so  many  races  in 


128  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

of  Yucatan  speak,  to-day,  the  same  language  as  their  an- 
cestors three  and  four  thousand  years  ago.  Let  us  then 
examine  the  names  of  the  cities  and  lands  or  countries 
mentioned  in  the  Book  of  Mormon  as  existing  in  this 
country  one  thousand  five  hundred  or  two  thousand 
years  ago  : 

Antionum,  Ishmael, 

Amulon,  Jacob, 

Ammonihah  Jacobugath, 

Antiparah,  Jershon, 

Boaz,  Jerusalem, 

Bountiful,  Jordan, 

Cumeni,  Josh, 

Desolation,  Kishkumen, 

Gadiandi,  Laman, 

Gad,  Lemuel, 

Gadiomnah,  Manti, 

Gilgal,  Melek, 

Gid,  Minon, 

Gideon,  Middoni, 

Gimgimno,  Mocum, 

Helam,  Moriantum, 

Hermounts,  Moroni, 


such  a  limited  space  as  the  peninsula  of  Yucatan  is  ;  but  it  is  yet  the  vernacu- 
lar of  the  people.  The  Spaniards  themselves,  who  strived  so  hard  to  wipe  out 
all  vestiges  of  the  ancient  customs  of  the  aborigines,  were  unable  to  destroy 
it,  nay,  they  were  obliged  to  learn  it  ;  and  now  many  of  their  descendants 
have  forgotten  the  mother  tongue  of  their  sires  and  speak  Maya  only. 

"  In  some  localities  in  Central  America  it  is  still  spoken  in  its  pristine 
purity,  as,  for  example,  by  the  Chaacmules,  a  tribe  of  bearded  men,  it  is  said, 
who  live  in  the  vicinity  of  the  unexplored  ruins  of  the  ancient  city  of  Tekal. 
It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  many  tribes,  as  that  of  the  Itzas,  retreating  before 
the  Nahualt  invaders,  after  the  surrender  and  destruction  of  their  cities, 
sought  refuge  in  the  islands  of  the  Lake  Peten  of  to-day,  and  called  it  Peten- 
Itza,  the  '  island  of  the  Itzas,'  or  in  the  well-nigh  inaccessible  valleys  defended 
by  ranges  of  towering  mountains.  There  they  live  to-day,  preserving  the 
customs,  manners,  and  language  of  their  forefathers  unaltered,  in  the  tract  of 
land  known  to  us  as  Tierra  de  Guerra." — "  Vestiges  of  the  Mayas,"  by  Dr. 
Augustus  Le  Plongeon,  p.  2j- 

"  What  is  most  satisfactory  to  us  is  the  probability  that  the  language  is 
spoken  to-day  by  the  mass  of  the  native  population  of  Yucatan  as  it  was 
anciently,  for,  says  Senor  Pimentel  :  '  The  Indians  have  preserved  this  idiom 
with  such  tenacity  that  to  this  day  they  will  speak  no  other.'  Senor  Oroyco  j 
Berra  furnishes  us  evidence  that  little  change  has  taken  place  in  the  language 
since  the  earliest  times,  in  the  statement  that  all  the  geographical  names  of  the 
peninsula  are  Maya,  which  is  considered  proof  in  his  judgment  that  the  Mayas 
were  the  first  occupants  of  the  country."— J.   T.  Short,  p.  478. 


Moronihah, 

Shimlon, 

Mulek, 

Sidom, 

Nephihah, 

Shem, 

Noah, 

Shemnilon, 

Omner, 

Teancum, 

Oniha, 

Zarahemla, 

Sherrizah, 

Zeezrom. 

Shilom, 

129 


Now  if  the  Book  of  Mormon  be  true  we  should  be 
able  to  take  up  any  good  geography  of  Central  Amer- 
ica and  the  northern  portions  of  South  America  and 
find  these  names  still  preserved,  that  is,  wherever  the 
old  Indian  names  have  been  retained.  In  many  in- 
stances new  towns  have  sprung  up  since  the  Spanish 
conquest,  and  have  been  given  Spanish  names.  But 
in  the  old  cities  and  countries  or  provinces  that  retain 
their  old  Indian  names,  we  should  be  able  to  find  pre- 
served the  greater  portion  of  these  Book  of  Mormon 
names.  And  thanks  to  the  patient  investigations  of 
scholars  and  antiquarians,  we  are  furnished  with  a  list 
of  names  that  reach  quite  back  to  the  times  professedly 
covered  by  the  chronology  of  the  Book  of  Mormon — 
ancient  names,  names  that  belonged  to  the  cities  and 
countries  of  this  continent  fifteen  hundred  and  two 
thousand  years  ago,  some  of  them  reaching  back  three 
and  four  thousand  years  ago. 

THE     NAMES    OF    ANCIENT    CITIES     AND    COUNTRIES     IN 
NORTH    AMERICA. 

Carchah,  Hueyxalan, 

Champoton,  Guatulco, 

Chichen  Itza,  Itzalane, 

Chimalhuacan,  Izamal, 

Chiquimula,  Mazatepec, 

Cholula,  Mayapan, 

Culouacan,  Metlaltoyuca, 

Hapallanconco,  Mazapan, 

Huehuetan.  Nachan, 


130  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

Nimxab,  Teotihuacan, 

Ococingo,  Tlacopan, 

Olman,  Toxpan, 

Quiyahuiztlan,  Tulan, 

Quemeda,  Tulancingo, 

Quauhnahuac,  Txintzurtzan, 

Quauhatochco,  Tzequil, 

Tamoancan,  Xalisco, 

Tepeu,  Xibalba, 

Tlaachicatzin,  Xicalanco, 

Tlapallanconco,  Xochicalco, 

Tlaxicoluican,  Xumiltepec, 

Tepetla,  Yobaa, 

Tonacatepetl,  Zazatlan, 

Totzapan,  Ziubcohuatl. 

Let  it  be  borne  in  mind  that  I  have  not  selected 
names  with  view  of  making  a  point.  I  have  given  all 
the  names  in  the  Book  of  Mormon  located  in  the  land 
"northward,"  as  well  as  all  the  names  of  cities  located 
in  the  northern  half  of  South  America  so  far  as  it  is 
possible  to  locate  them.  And  by  the  side  of  these  an- 
cient cities  named  in  the  Book  of  Mormon  I  have  placed 
all  the  names  of  ancient  cities  that  I  have  been  able  to 
find  by  a  hasty  reading,  located  anywhere  near  the 
same  portions  of  this  Western  continent  professedly 
covered  by  Book  of  Mormon  history. 

Let  the  reader  attentively  compare  these  two  lists. 
Is  it  not  strange  that  not  even  one  solitary  name  from 
the  Book  of  Mormon  has  been  unearthed  by  all  the 
researches  of  the  past,  and  that  we  are  left  without  an 
evidence  of  the  truthfulness  of  this  book — on  the  con- 
trary are  brought  face  to  face  with  the  most  incontesta- 
ble and  unanswerable  evidences  of  its  fraud.  For  this 
is  not  simply  a  negative  testimony  ;  it  is  a  very  positive 
testimony  that  this  Mormon  list  of  names  never  had  an 
existence  in  fact — that  they  are  absolutely  a  myth  ; 
and  therefore  the  book  that  contains  them  a  fraudulent 
fiction. 


AMERICAN    ANTIQUITIES  I3I 

Still  stronger,  if  possible,  is  the  testimony  from  the 
names  of  men.  Look  among  the  Jews  all  over  the 
world  to-day,  and  you  find  perpetuated  in  their  families 
the  old  Bible  names  Isaac,  Jacob,  Joseph,  Judah, 
Simeon,  Benjamin,  Samuel,  David,  Solomon,  Daniel, 
and  the  like.  And  so,  if  the  Indians  are  the  real 
descendants  of  the  ancient  Lamanites,  we  should  cer- 
tainly find  the  greater  portion  of  those  old  Book  of 
Mormon  names  of  men  everywhere  perpetuated  among 
the  Indian  races  of  to-day.  How  could  it  be  other- 
wise ?  There  is  no  change  possible  or  conceivable  by 
which  those  old  honored  names  could  be  entirely  ob- 
literated from  the  race.  During  the  one  thousand  years 
of  their  recorded  history  as  given  in  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon, the  old  familiar  names  of  Lehi,  Nephi,  Laman, 
Lemuel,  and  others,  are  constantly  recurring  ;  they  held 
on  to  them  with  reverential  pertinacity.  If  the  Book 
of  Mormon  were  a  true  record,  we  should  find  these 
names  in  abundance  among  various  Indian  races  scat- 
tered over  both  continents.  Has  any  one  ever  discov- 
ered or  even  heard  of,  by  tradition  or  otherwise,  one 
Book  of  Mormon  name  among  the  Indians,  unless  that 
name  were  borrowed  from  the  vocabulary  of  modern  Gen- 
tile nations  ?  Precisely  the  result  found  in  comparing 
geographical  names  is  found  here.  The  conclusion  then 
is  inevitable  :  Either  the  statements  of  all  the  scholars 
who  have  been  patiently  investigating,  during  the  past 
three  hundred  years,  ancient  American  history,  the 
entire  traditionary  history  of  the  various  native  races 
in  Central  America  and  Old  Mexico,  the  testimony  of 
the  preserved  writings  of  the  ancient  Mayas,  and  the 
testimony  of  the  Indian  names  of  to-day,  a?-e  all  wrong, 
or  the  Book  of  Mormon  is  a  fable  and  its  list  of  names 
a  myth.  There  is  no  other  possible  conclusion  ;  no 
middle  ground.      Both  cannot  be  true. 

Nothing  could  be  more  clearly  stated  in  the  Book  of 


132 


THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 


Mormon  than  that  a  Chris- 
tian civilization  prevailed  all 
over  both  continents  for  a 
period  of  over  two  hundred 
years  after  the  time  of 
Christ,  and  yet  nothing 
could  be  wider  from  the 
truth.  The  fact  is,  there 
never  has  been  a  time  upon 
this  western  hemisphere 
within  the  historic  period, 
or  within  three  thousand 
years  past,  when  a  uniform 
civilization  of  any  kind  pre- 
vailed over  both  continents. 

Confining  ourselves,  how- 
ever, to  Central  America 
and  Old  Mexico,  because 
we  know  vastly  more  of 
their  ancient  history  than 
of  any  other  ancient  peo- 
ples upon  this  western  hem- 
isphere, we  will  briefly 
state  : 

That  a  Christian  civili- 
zation has  never  existed  in 
Central  America  not  even 
for  a  day.  Its  people  as  far 
back  as  their  record  has 
been  traced  (and  that  is 
centuries  earlier  than  the 
alleged  beginning  of  Ne- 
phite  history),  have  always 
been  an  idolatrous  people, 
as  thoroughly  heathen  as 
any  which  the  history  of  the 


AMERICAN    ANTIQUITIES  133 

world  has  described,  worshiping  idols  as  hideous  in  form 
and  feature  as  have  ever  been  found  upon  earth,  and 
accompanying  that  worship  by  human  sacrifices  as  bar- 
barous as  the  annals  of  history  have  recorded. 

The  accompanying  cut  is  from  photographs  taken  by 
Catherwood,  of  one  of  the  idols  worshiped  by  the  people 
of  Central  America  from  Pre-Toltec  times.  Perfect  fac- 
similes of  a  large  number  of  these,  of  various  form 
and  feature,  as  hideous  apparently  as  the  human  intel- 
lect could  well  devise,  may  be  seen  in  the  Smithsonian 
Institution,  Washington,  D.  C,  all  copied  from  the 
ruins  in  Central  America. 

This  idol  worship  included  the  worship  of  the  sun 
and  human  sacrifices.1 

Mr.  Bancroft2  tells  us  when  sun  worship  and  human 
sacrifices  were  first  introduced  at  Teotihuacan  in  the 
Pre-Toltec  period,  that  is,  before  Christ. 

On  page  704  of  the  same  volume  : 

The  gods  of  the  Yucatecs  (the  ancient  Mayas  of  Yucatan)  re- 
quired far  fewer  human  lives  at  the  hands  of  their  worshipers 
than  those  of  the  Nahuas. 

Nevertheless,  the  Yucatec  religion  was  not  free  from  human 
sacrifice  ;  and  although  captives  taken  in  war  were  used  for  this 
purpose,  yet  it  is  said  that  such  was  their  devotion  that  should  a 
victim  be  wanting  they  would  dedicate  their  children  to  the  altar 
rather  than  let  the  gods  be  deprived  of  their  dues. 

The  custom  of  eating  the  flesh  of  human  victims  who  were  sac- 
rificed to  the  gods  was  probably  practised  more  or  less  in  all  the 
Maya  regions. 

Mr.  Bancroft,  in  Vol.  II.,  pp.  706-708,  describes 
quite  fully  the  ceremonies  of  the  two  annual  festivals 
held  in  honor  of  their  two  principal  gods,  the  method 
of  conducting  the  horrid  rites,  when  boys  between  the 

1  "The  sun  was  worshiped  by  the  ancient  Mayas,  and  the  Indians  of  to-day 
preserve  the  dance  as  used  by  their  forefathers  among  the  rites  of  the  adora- 
tion of  that  luminary." — "  Vestiges  of  the  Mayas,"  by  Dr.  Augustus  Le 
Plongeon,  p.  j/. 

2"  Native  Races  of  America,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  205. 


134  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

ages  of  six  and  twelve  years  were  sacrificed  ;  he  also 
describes  the  ceremonies  attending  the  celebration  of 
great  victories,  which  were  usually  continued  for  fifteen 
days,  a  prisoner  being  sacrificed  each  day  ;  and  also  the 
human  sacrifices  offered  at  each  of  the  eighteen  yearly 
festivals. 1 

In  fact,  Mr.  Bancroft  occupies  nearly  one  entire  vol- 
ume of  his  valuable  series  of  ancient  American  history 
in  explaining  the  complicated  religious  system  of  these 
two  old  peoples,  the  Nahuas  and  the  Mayas.  For  more 
than  three  thousand  years  it  has  been  in  Central 
America  one  unbroken  record  of  superstition  and  hu- 
man slaughter. 

An  unfortunate  fatality  surely  that  in  the  very  region 
of  country  where  the  Book  of  Mormon  fixes  magnifi- 
cent temples  and  sanctuaries  erected  by  a  Christian 
people  for  the  worship  of  the  true  God,  there  should 
be  dug  up  out  of  the  ruins  of  old  temples  and  palaces 
such  relics  of  the  real  religion  of  these  ancient  peoples. 

The  Entire  Civilization  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  a 
Myth.  The  following  are  only  a  few  of  the  counts  in 
the  indictment  against  the  historical  accuracy  of  the 
book  : 

i.  The  oldest  record  as  found  in  the  book  of  Ether 
cannot  possibly  be  true. 

(i)  That  record  tells  us  that  a  people  called  the  Jare- 
dites  were  the  sole  occupants  of  Central  America  and 
Mexico  from  a  very  early  period  down  to  about  six 
hundred    years   before    Christ — while  genuine  records 

1  "We  are  told,  and  the  bas-reliefs  of  Chaacmol's  mausoleum  prove  it.  that 
the  Mayas  devoured  the  hearts  of  their  fallen  enemies.  It  is  said  that  on  cer- 
tain grand  occasions,  after  offering  the  hearts  of  their  victims  to  the  idols, 
they  abandoned  the  bodies  to  the  people,  who  feasted  upon  them.  But  it  must 
be  noticed  that  these  last  mentioned  customs  seem  to  have  been  introduced  in 
the  country  by  the  Nahualts  and  Aztecs,  since  as  yet  we  have  found  nothing 
in  the  mural  paintings  to  cause  us  to  believe  that  the  Mayas  indulged  in  such 
barbaric  repasts  beyond  the  eating  of  their  enemies'  hearts." — "  Vestiges  of 
the  Mayas,"  by  Dr.  Augustus  Le  Plongeon,  /.  ~o. 


AMERICAN    ANTIQUITIES 


135 


Tablet  of  the  Cross. 


136 


THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 


give  us  the  names  of  the  Quinames,  the  Mayas,  the 
Miztecs,  the  Zapotecs,  the  Totonacs,  the  Huastecs,  the 
Olmecs,  and  the  Xicalancas,  as  the  people  who  occu- 
pied that  section  of  country  in  the  most  ancient  times.1 

(2)  The  book  of  Ether  tells  us  that  about  six  hun- 
dred years  before  Christ  the  Jaredites  living  in  Cen- 
tral America  were  totally  exterminated,  and  have  had 
no  existence  since,  while  authentic  records  show  that 
no  such  extermination  ever  occurred.  The  Mayas,  at 
least,  occupy  the  same  country  to-day  as  of  yore. 

(3)  The  Book  of  Mormon  tells  that  after  the  exter- 
mination of  the  Jaredites  in  Central  America  and  Mex- 
ico, that  country  remained  utterly  desolate,  without  an 
inhabitant  for  nearly  six  hundred  years  ;  so  desolate, 
indeed,  that  it  was  named  "the  land  Desolation,"  where- 
as, according  to  ancient  Mayan  history  that  country  has 
never  for  one  hour  been  without  a  teeming  population 
for  more  than  four  thousand  years  past.2 

1  See  J.  T.  Short,  p.  234. 

2 Of  the  Nahuas,  J.  T.  Short,  p.  240,  says  :  "The  date  of  the  emigration  to 
Hue-hue  Tlapalan  cannot  be  approximated  from  available  data,  but  it  is  evi- 
dent that  Ixtlilxochitl  fixes  it  at  five  hundred  and  twenty  years  after  the  flood, 
or  two  thousand  two  hundred  and  thirty-six  after  the  creation — a  period 
which  must  have  antedated  the  Christian  Era  by  a  score  of  centuries  or 
more." 

"  Its  method  (of  computing  time)  was  to  count  by  equal  periods  of  years, 
as  we  count  by  centuries,  and  their  chronology  presents  a  series  of  periods 
which  carries  back  their  history  to  a  very  remote  time  in  the  past." — Bald- 
win s"  Anc.  Am.,"  p.  204. 

This  same  author  quotes  Brasseur-de-Bourbourg  as  saying:  "  In  the  histo- 
ries written  in  the  Nahuatl  language,  the  oldest  certain  date  is  nine  hundred 
and  fifty-five  years  before  Christ." 

The  Mayas  are  still  older.  "The  venerable  civilization  of  the  Mayas, 
whose  forest-grown  cities  and  crumbling  temples  hold  entombed  a  history  of 
vanished  glory,  no  doubt  belongs  to  the  remotest  period  of  North  American 
antiquity.  It  was  old  when  the  Nahuas,  then  a  comparatively  rude  people, 
first  came  in  contact  with  it,  adopted  many  of  its  features,  and  grafted  upon  it 
new  life." — J.   T.  Short,  p.  jig. 

"I  must  speak  of  that  language  which  has  survived  unaltered  through  the 
vicissitudes  of  the  nations  that  spoke  it  thousands  of  years  ago,  and  is  yet 
the  general  tongue  in  Yucatan,  the  Maya.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  is 
one  of  the  most  ancient  languages  on  earth.  It  was  used  by  a  people  that 
lived  at  least  six  thousand  years  ago,  as  proved  by  the  Katuns,  to  record  the 
history  of  their  rulers,  the  dogmas  of  their  religion,  on  the  walls  of  their  pal- 
aces or  the  facades  of  their  temples." — Dr.  Augustus  Le  Plongeon,  quoted  by 
J.  T.  Short,  p.  475. 


AMERICAN    ANTIQUITIES  137 

(4)  The  Book  of  Mormon  tells  us  that  after  lying 
desolate  for  nearly  six  hundred  years,  it  was  then  occu- 
pied by  the  Nephites  for  a  period  of  about  four  hun- 
dred years,  when  it  again  changed  its  inhabitants  in  the 
year  a.  d.  384.  The  Nephites,  we  are  told,  were  ex- 
terminated, and  the  Lamanites  took  possession  and  re- 
tained it  until  the  advent  of  the  Spaniards  three  hun- 
dred years  ago.  In  other  words,  a  high  Christian  civili- 
zation in  Central  America  suddenly  collapsed  and  was 
replaced  in  a.  d.  384  by  a  wild,  barbarous,  savage  peo- 
ple, who  held  undisputed  control  until  modern  times. 
How  very  opposite  to  this  are  the  established  facts. 
Instead  of  changing  its  peoples  three  times,  that  por- 
tion of  Central  America  occupied  by  the  Mayas  has 
never  changed  from  the  first,  and  instead  of  becoming, 
a.  d.  384,  a  wild,  barbarous,  bloodthirsty  people  like 
the  Indian  of  American  history,  they  retained  their  an- 
cient civilization,  and  in  fact  reached  their  highest 
point  of  development  after  the  Book  of  Mormon  had 
consigned  the  whole  country  to  barbarism  and  sav- 
agery. 

2.  The  statements  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  regard- 
ing the  origin  of  the  Nephites  and  the  Lamanites  and 
their  history  in  general  for  a  period  of  one  thousand 
years,  from  b.  c.  600  to  a.  d.  400,  cannot  be  true,  not 
even  in  a  single  particular.      For 

(1)  The  Book  of  Mormon  tells  us  that  the  Nephites, 
Lamanites,  and  the  people  of  Zarahemla,  and  this  in- 
cluded all  the  people  in  existence  upon  either  conti- 
nent, came  from  the  city  of  Jerusalem  six  hundred  years 
before  Christ.  Whereas,  the  Mayas  were  in  full  pos- 
session of  Central  America  years  before  Abraham,  the 
father  of  the  Jewish  race,  was  born.1 

1"So  far  as  the  other  so-called  primitive  nations  of  New  Spain  are  con- 
cerned, little  can  be  said,  except  that  they  claim  and  have  always  been  cred- 
ited with  a  very  ancient  residence  in  this  land,  dating  back  far  beyond  the  be- 
ginning of  the  historic  period," — Bancroft,  Vol.  V.,  p.  2bj. 


I38  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

(2)  The  Book  of  Mormon  tells  us  that  Lehi  and  his 
company  landed  upon  the  western  coasts  of  South 
America  and  gradually  worked  their  way  northward, 
until  a  few  years  before  Christ,  when  they  reached  and 
occupied  Central  America. 

Whereas  the  peoples  who  occupied  Central  America 
at  the  time  of  Christ,  at  least  the  Nahuas  (Toltecs)  and 
the  Mayas,  did  not  come  from  South  America  at  all. 
All  the  Toltec  traditions  declare  that  they  came  from 
the  north,  from  a  country  they  called  Hue-hue  Tlapa- 
lan,  a  country  which  they  claim  to  have  occupied  for  a 
period  of  nearly  two  thousand  years  before  they  mi- 
grated to  Central  America. 

(3)  The  Nephites  carefully  observed  the  law  of 
Moses,  and  therefore  perpetuated,  of  course,  Jewish 
customs  and  the  Jewish  religion,  had  the  Jewish  method 
of  recording  time,  divided  their  year  into  twelve 
months,  had  a  week  of  seven  days,  the  last  day  being  a 
Sabbath  of  rest,  a  seventh  year  called  the  Sabbatic 
year,  and  after  every  forty-nine  years  a  year  of  jubilee, 
etc. 

Whereas  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Central  America 
divided  their  year  into  eighteen  months  of  twenty  days 
each,  adding  five  days  at  the  close  of  each  year.1 

They  had  another  division  of  the  year  into  weeks  of 
thirteen  days  each,  instead  of  seven,  and  their  periods 
were  made  up  of  fifty-two  years  instead  of  forty-nine, 
with  no  trace  of  a  Sabbath  day  or  a  year  of  jubilee.2 

(4)  The  Nephites  were  a  "white  and  delightsome" 
people.      The    inhabitants   of  Central   America    have 

1  "  They  divided  the  year  into  eighteen  months  of  twenty  days  each  ;  but  as 
this  gave  the  year  only  three  hundred  and  sixty  days,  five  supplementary 
days  were  added  each  year,  and  a  sixth  day  to  every  fourth  year." — Bald- 
win's "  Ancient  Am.,"  p.  204. 

2  "The  year  was  divided  into  twenty-eight  periods  of  thirteen  days  each. 
These  periods  for  convenience  have  been  called  weeks." — J.   T.  Short,  p.  440. 

"  Another  division  of  time  was  the  Katun  or  cycle  of  fifty-two  years.  The 
Katun  was  comprised  of  four  periods  of  thirteen  years  each."— y.  T.  Short, 
P-  43S. 


AMERICAN    ANTIQUITIES  139 

always  been  of  a  brown  or  copper  color.  There  are 
many  proofs  of  this. 

Not  only  are  the  Mayas  of  to-day,  the  true  and  lineal 
descendants  of  the  ancient  Mayas,  of  that  color,  but  all 
the  ancient  pictures  of  men  and  women  found  in  the 
ruins,  are  painted  brown  or  copper  color.1 

(5)  If  the  Nephiteswere  a  white  and  a  delightsome 
people,  and  if  they  were  pure  Jews  from  the  city  of 
Jerusalem,  observing  Jewish  laws  and  customs,  then 
they  had  full  round  foreheads.  No  deforming  of  the 
head  has  ever  been  practised  by  the  Jews  in  any 
part  of  the  world,  nor  by  Christians  of  any  age  or 
country.  This  barbarous  practice  was  instigated  by  a 
superstition  so  peculiarly  heathenish  that  we  cannot 
conceive  it  possible  in  a  Christian  land.  And  therefore 
when  we  find  this  ugly  and  hideous  custom  among  the 
ancient  occupants  of  Central  America  no  reasonable 
person  will  ask  a  better  evidence  that  those  ancient 
people  were  not  Nephites,  and  could  have  had  no  rela- 
tionship to  either  Jews  or  Christians. 

The  writer  asks  the  indulgence  of  the  reader  while 
he  briefly  calls  attention  to  a  few  other  items,  which 
equally  with  the  preceding  make  incredible  the  aver- 
ments of  the  Book  of  Mormon. 

1.  Iron,  Steel,  and  Brass.  The  Book  of  Mormon 
tells  us  that  iron,  steel,  and  brass  were  in  as  common  use 
among  the  ancient  Nephites  as  they  are  to-day  : 

And  I  did  teach  my  people  to  build  buildings  ;  and  to  work  in 
all  manner  of  wood,  and  of  iron,  and  of  copper,  and  of  brass,  and 

1  "  Blue,  red,  yellow,  and  green  are  the  colors  employed,  though  the  human 
figures  are  painted  reddish  brown." — J.  T.  Short. 

"  The  Mayas,  like  the  Nahuas,  were  mostly  well-made,  tall,  strong,  and  hardy. 
Their  complexion  was  tawny.  The  women  were  passably  good  looking,  some 
of  them,  it  is  said,  quite  pretty,  and  seem  to  have  been  somewhat  fairer 
skinned  than  the  men."—  Banc,  Vol.  II.,  p.  802. 

"  Race  mixtures  in  certain  localities  have  almost  obliterated  aboriginal  types, 
which  are  portrayed  as  of  medium  stature,  regular  form,  and  varying  in  color 
from  light  brown  to  dark  coppery." — Ibid.,   Vol   1 ' ,  p.  714. 


I4O  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

of  steel,  and  of  gold,  and  of  silver,  and  of  precious  ores,  which 
were  in  great  abundance.1 

Against  these  fictitious  words  the  authorities  are  posi- 
tive and  numerous.2 

2.  Horses,  Cattle,  Sheep,  and  Goats.  Equally  de- 
cisive is  the  testimony  against  the  Book  of  Mormon  as 
to  the  existence  of  the  above  domestic  animals.  The 
Book  of  Mormon  tells  us  : 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  we  did  find  upon  the  land  of  promise 
as  we  journeyed  in  the  wilderness,  that  there  were  beasts  in  the 
forests  of  every  kind,  both  the  cow  and  the  ox,  and  the  ass  and 
the  horse,  and  the  goat  and  the  wild  goat,  and  all  manner  of  wild 
animals,  which  were  for  the  use  of  men.3 

Against  these  statements  the  authorities  are  plain 
and  unequivocal.4 

3.  Ancient  Coins.  One  of  the  most  amusing  illus- 
trations of  our  author's  disposition  to  beat  the  world 
may  be  seen  in  the  curious  monetary  scheme  he  devised 
for  his  remarkable  people  the  Nephites  : 

And  the  judge  received  for  his  wages,  according  to  his  time,  a 
senine  of  gold  for  a  day,  or  a  senum  of  silver,  which  is  equal  to  a 
senine  of  gold  ;  and  this  is  according  to  the  law  which  was  given. 
Now  these  are  the  names  of  the  different  pieces  of  their  gold,  and 

1  P.  71.     See  also  pp.  153.  186  and  others. 

2  Of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Peru  Mr.  Baldwin  says  :  "  They  had  great 
skill  in  the  art  of  working  metals,  especially  gold  and  silver.  Besides  these 
precious  metals  they  had  copper,  tin,  lead,  and  quicksilver.  Iron  was  un- 
known to  them  in  the  time  of  the  Incas." — "  Anc.  Am.,"  p.  248. 

Mr.  Squier  says:  "The  Indians  had  neither  iron  nor  steel." — "Peru,"  p. 
4bq. 

Of  the  inhabitants  of  Central  America  Mr.  Bancroft  says  :  "  As  I  have  al- 
ready stated,  none  of  these  nations  were  acquainted  with  the  use  of  iron  in  any 
shape." — "Native  Races,"   Vol.  II.,  p.  407. 

3  P.  47.     See  also  pp.  151,  295,  and  others. 

4  Of  the  ancient  Peruvians  Mr.  Squier  says  :  "  No  doubt  the  Indian  popula- 
tion lived,  as  it  still  lives,  on  the  scantiest  fare,  on  the  very  minimum  of 
food  ;  but  it  had  not  then  as  now  the  ox,  the  hog,  the  goat,  and  the  sheep,  nor 
yet  many  of  the  grains  and  fruits  which  contributed  most  to  the  support  of 
dense  populations." — P.  14. 

"  We  must  remember  that  many  domestic  animals,  a  number  of  vegetables, 
and  wheat  and  barley,  have  all  been  introduced  since  the  conquest." — P.  432 


AMERICAN    ANTIQUITIES  I4I 

of  their  silver,  according  to  their  value  ...  a  senine  of  gold,  a 
seon  of  gold,  a  shum  of  gold,  and  a  limnah  of  gold  ;  a  senum  of 
silver,  an  amnor  of  silver,  an  ezrom  of  silver,  and  an  onti  of  silver. 
A  senum  of  silver  was  equal  to  a  senine  of  gold  ;  and  either  for 
a  measure  of  barley,   and  also  for  a  measure  of  every  kind  of 


To  the  above  queer  particulars  there  are  several 
objections  : 

(1)  Two  very  absurd  statements  are  made.  First,  that 
these  Nephites  had  a  fixed  standard  of  value  for  their 
barley.  At  all  seasons  of  the  year,  and  every  year, 
whether  a  large  or  a  small  crop,  a  measure  of  barley 
brought  the  uniform  price  of  a  senum  of  silver  or  a 
senine  of  gold. 

A  still  second  greater  absurdity  is  the  statement  that 
all  kinds  of  grain  brought  the  same  price  as  barley. 

(2)  The  somewhat  stubborn  fact  that  barley  was  never 
found  upon  either  of  these  western  continents  until  im- 
ported by  Europeans  in  modern  times.2 

(3)  But  the  most  damaging  fact  is  the  clear  and  satis- 
factory evidence  that  no  gold  or  silver  coin  of  any  de- 
nomination whatever,  ever  existed  in  Central  America 
in  the  ancient  times.3 

This  refers  to  the  ancient  Nahuas  or  Toltecs. 

The  ancient  coins  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  are  there- 

1  p.  265. 

2  Of  the  ancient  Peruvians  Mr.  Squier  says  :  "  We  must  remember  that 
many  domestic  animals,  a  number  of  vegetables,  and  wheat  and  barley  have 
all  been  introduced  since  the  conquest,  and  contribute  to  the  support  of  the 
present  population." — P.  452. 

3  "  Although  no  regular  coined  money  was  used,  yet  several  more  or  less  con- 
venient substitutes  furnished  a  medium  of  circulation.  Chief  among  these 
were  nibs,  or  grains  of  the  cacao,  of  a  species  somewhat  different  from  that 
employed  in  making  the  favorite  drink,  chocolate.  This  money,  known  as 
patlachte,  passed  current  anywhere,  and  payments  of  it  would  be  made  by 
count  up  to  8,000,  which  constituted  a  xiquipilli.  In  large  transactions  sacks 
containing  three  xiquipilli  were  used  to  save  labor  in  counting.  Patolquachtli 
were  small  pieces  of  cotton  cloth  used  as  money  in  purchase  of  articles  of  im- 
mediate necessity  or  of  little  value.  Another  circulating  medium  was  gold 
dust,  kept  in  translucent  quills,  that  the  quantity  might  be  readily  seen.  Cop- 
per was  also  cut  into  small  Dieces  shaped  like  a  T,  which  constituted,  perhaps. 
the  nearest  approach  to  coined  money." — Banc,  Vol.  II., p.  381. 


142  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

fore  simply  a  silly  fable,  the  creation  of  a  wretchedly 
disordered  or  a  wickedly  perverse  imagination. 

We  may  profitably  for  a  little  while  consider  the 
geography  of  the  Book  of  Mormon. 

We  had  designed  a  full  and  complete  presentation  of 
this  subject  in  these  pages.  But  the  discussion  has  al- 
ready assumed  proportions  beyond  our  original  inten- 
tion, and  therefore,  instead  of  a  separate  chapter,  we 
must  crowd  into  a  few  sentences  the  results  of  a  long 
and  careful  investigation  of  the  geography  of  our  book. 

There  was  no  necessity  of  egregious  blunders  upon 
such  a  subject.  An  ordinary  schoolboy  who  had  studied 
geography  with  any  attention  should  have  been  able 
to  form  a  plot  and  locate  cities  and  lands  in  a  way  to 
conform  in  the  main  to  the  physical  conformations  of 
the  country.  But  our  angel  was  evidently  unhampered 
by  geographical  restraints.  His  geography,  like  his 
grammar  and  his  theology,  was  all  his  own.  Not  one 
of  the  physical  peculiarities  of  either  of  these  western 
continents  is  alluded  to  except  the  existence  of  the 
large  lakes  and  "many  fountains  of  waters"  in  the 
northern  part  of  the  United  States  (the  only  portion  of 
our  country  that  our  youthful  prophet  knew  anything 
about). 

He  has  his  Nephites  and  Lamanites  occupy  South 
America  for  a  thousand  years,  and  yet  all  its  vast  river 
courses,  including  its  mighty  and  majestic  Amazon,  are 
entirely  overlooked.  One  river  only  is  everywhere  met, 
bearing  the  Old  World  name  Sidon  ;  but  a  careful  ex- 
amination of  every  passage  in  the  book  where  it  is  men- 
tioned fails  to  give  any  definite  information  as  to  its 
source,  its  size,  which  way  it  runs,  or  where  it  empties. 
In  a  footnote  on  p.  238  in  Book  of  Mormon  we  find  this  : 
"Supposed  to  be  Magdalena  " — a  small  river  at  the  ex- 
treme north  end  of  the  continent,  running  northward 


AMERICAN    ANTIQUITIES  143 

and  emptying  into  the  Caribbean  Sea  !  The  grandest 
mountains  in  the  world  and  the  highest  table-lands  are 
as  entirely  ignored  as  is  the  general  shape  of  the  two 
continents  and  other  physical  facts.  While  the  physi- 
cal characteristics  of  Palestine  are  woven  as  a  web  into 
almost  every  page  of  Bible  history,  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon is  unable  to  appeal  to  a  single  geographical  fact  in 
confirmation  of  its  pretended  histories — except  the 
general  one  that  there  was  a  "land  south"  and  a 
"land  north." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  evident  that  the  author  or 
authors  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  had  no  conception 
whatever  of  the  shape  or  size  of  either  North  or  South 
America.  The  one  little  river  in  the  "land  south- 
ward ' '  is  easily  forded  ;  the  people  from  every  portion 
of  the  land  can  reach  one  central  place  every  day  to 
water  their  stock  ;  its  armies  can  be  by  the  east  sea  one 
day,  and  the  next  in  the  land  "Bountiful"  at  the 
north,  or  by  the  "borders  of  the  wilderness"  on  the 
west  coast.  The  "land  of  Nephi,"  the  center  of  the 
entire  Book  of  Mormon  history,  is  evidently  so  small  a 
country  that  Apostle  Orson  Pratt,  in  footnote  on  p. 
155,  says:  "The  land  of  Nephi  is  supposed  to  have 
been  in  or  near  Ecuador,  South  America." 

Very  appropriately  he  says  "supposed  to  have 
been  "  ;  he  did  not  know  what  else  to  say.  No  man 
on  earth  can  locate  it  from  any  of  the  descriptions 
given  in  the  book.  And  the  Mormon  leaders  forced 
to  commit  themselves  to  some  show  of  geography  have 
agreed  to  say  :  "Is  supposed  to  have  been  in  or  near 
Ecuador  " — that  is,  it  is  a  small  country  that  could  be 
located  in  Ecuador  or  near  Ecuador. 

And  yet  on  p.  383  we  read  :  "And  the  land  of 
Nephi  did  run  in  a  straight  course  from  the  east  sea 
(the  Atlantic  Ocean)  to  the  west  (Pacific  Ocean)." 
And  as  a  matter  of  fact  some  of  the  largest  cities  in 


144  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

the   Book  of  Mormon   are   located  along   the  eastern 
coast  of  the  continent. 

And  thus  he  went  on,  taking  possession  of  many  cities  :  the  city 
of  Nephihah,  and  the  city  of  Lehi,  and  the  city  of  Morianton, 
and  the  city  of  Omner,  and  the  city  of  Gid,  and  the  city  of  Mu- 
lek,  all  of  which  -were  on  the  east  borders  of  the  seashore.1 

Aside  from  these  we  have  "Moroni"  "by  the  east 
sea,"  p.  384,  and  "Aaron"  not  far  away,  with  quite  a 
number  of  others,  besides  the  "land  Jershon,"  p.  316, 
and  the  "  land  Antionum  south  of  Jershon, "etc.  And 
yet  notwithstanding  all  these  plain  statements  of  the 
extent  of  the  "  land  of  Nephi,"  making  it  nearly  three 
thousand  miles  in  length — the  evidences  are  so  abun- 
dant that  in  the  conception  of  the  author  of  this  book 
the  ' '  land  of  Nephi ' '  was  a  small  country — that  Apostle 
Pratt  was  constrained  to  forge  the  monstrous  lie  that  it 
"was  supposed  to  be  in  or  near  Ecuador,"  or  else 
come  out  like  a  man  and  squarely  and  honestly  ac- 
knowledge that  the  angel  or  the  spirit  who  inspired  the 
Book  of  Mormon  knew  nothing  of  the  geography  of 
South  America. 

And  here  perhaps  is  the  fitting  place  to  allude  to  an- 
other and  a  still  worse  piece  of  deception  by  our  vener- 
able Apostle  Orson  Pratt.  We  greatly  regret  the  neces- 
sity of  exposing  a  man  who  occupies  so  high  and  hon- 
orable a  place  among  his  own  people  as  the  late  Apostle 
Orson  Pratt.  But  he  has  published  his  statements  to 
the  world,  and  under  his  own  signature — they  therefore 
belong  henceforth  to  the  public. 

In  the  Book  of  Mormon  are  given  the  names  and  locations  of 
numerous  cities  of  great  magnitude  which  once  flourished  among 
the  ancient  nations  of  America.  The  northern  portions  of  South 
America,  and  also  Central  America,  were  the  most  densely  popu- 
lated.    Splendid  edifices,   palaces,  towers,  forts,  and  cities  were 

1  P.  389. 


Orson  Pratt 


Page  144 


AMERICAN    ANTIQUITIES  1 45 

reared  in  all  directions.  A  careful  reader  of  that  interesting 
book  can  trace  the  relative  bearings  and  distances  of  many  of  these 
cities  from  each  other ;  and  if  acquainted  with  the  present  geo- 
graphical features  of  the  country,  he  can,  by  the  descriptions 
given  in  that  book,  determine  very  nearly  the  precise  spot  of 
ground  they  once  occupied  (?)  Now  since  that  invaluable  book 
made  its  appearance  in  print,  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the 
moldering  ruins  of  many  splendid  edifices  and  towers  and  mag- 
nificent cities  of  great  extent  have  been  discovered  by  Cather- 
wood  and  Stephens  in  the  interior  wilds  of  Central  America,  in 
the  very  region  where  the  ancient  cities  described  in  the  Book  of 
Mormon  were  said  to  exist.  Here,  then,  is  a  certain  and  indis- 
putable evidence  that  this  illiterate  youth,  the  translator  of  the 
Book  of  Mormon,  was  inspired  of  God.  Mr.  Smith's  translation 
describes  the  region  of  country  where  great  and  populous  cities 
anciently  existed,  together  with  their  relative  bearings  and  ap- 
proximate distances  from  each  other.  Years  after,  Messrs.  Cather- 
wood  and  Stephens  discovered  the  ruins  of  forty-four  of  these 
very  cities  and  in  the  very  place  (?)  described.  What  but  the 
power  of  God  could  have  revealed  beforehand  this  unknow  fact 
demonstrated  years  after  by  actual  discovery  ?  l 

Now,  in  reference  to  the  above  glaring  misrepresenta- 
tions, we  will  only  make  the  following  observations  : 

1.  That  all  the  magnificent  cities  mentioned  in  the 
Book  of  Mormon,  with  four  exceptions,  are  located  not 
in  Central  America,  but  in  South  America. 

2.  Of  the  four  cities  mentioned  by  name  in  the 
"land  northward,"  two  of  them,  the  "  city  of  Deso- 
lation" and  the  "  city  of  Teancum,"  are  located  "  In 
the  border  by  the  narrow  pass  which  led  into  the  land 
southward"  2  And  this  is  at  least  eight  hundred  miles 
from  any  one  of  the  forty-four  cities  discovered  by 
Catherwood  and  Stephens. 

The  other  cities  in  the  "land  northward"  whose 
names  are  given  are  "  Boaz"  and  "Jordan,"  3  without 
one  syllable  to  indicate  where  they  were  located,  only 
that  after  a  sore  battle  in  the  "land   Desolation,"  the 

1  "  Divine  Authority  ;  or,  Was  Joseph  Smith  Sent  by  God  ?  "  p.  32. 

2  P-  553-  3  Pp.  556,  557- 

K 


I46  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

Nephites  fled  to  the  city  "  Boaz,"  and  when  driven 
out  of  Boaz,  on  their  way  to  the  fated  hill  Cumorah, 
they  made  a  bold  but  brief  stand  in  the  ''city  Jordan."  x 

3.  The  simple  fact  is,  there  is  no  man  on  earth  who, 
with  a  modern  geography  in  his  hand,  can  locate  a 
single  one  of  all  the  magnificent  cities  mentioned  in 
the  Book  of  Mormon,  whether  in  North  or  South 
America,  and  no  person  understood  this  fact  better 
then  our  good  apostle  when  he  penned  the  above  sad 
prevarications.  But  he  knew  another  thing  as  well, 
and  that  is  that  his  own  people  would  never  think  of 
calling  these  statements  of  his  in  question  ;  on  the  con- 
trary, thousands  of  young  missionaries  would  repeat 
them  confidently  upon  his  authority,  and  many  unsus- 
pecting ones  by  such  specious  arguments  be  induced  to 
accept  the  Book  of  Mormon  as  inspired  of  God  ! 

It  is  hardly  possible  to  characterize  with  sufficient 
severity  such  a  monstrous  fraud  as  this. 

Perhaps  we  should  have  some  measure  of  charity  for 
Apostle  Pratt,  since  he  was  from  the  first  under  the 
leadership  and  tuition  of  Mr.  Smith  and  Sidney  Rig- 
don.  And  it  is  proposed  to  conclude  this  discussion 
by  pointing  out  briefly  that  these  two  men  were  in  every 
way  fitted,  morally  as  well  as  intellectually,  to  perpetrate 
just  such  a  fraud  as  the  Book  of  Mormon. 

Joseph  Smith  was  a  peculiarly  constructed  man — a 
very  religious  nature,  superstitiously  so,  and  yet  com- 
bined with  this  a  strange  proclivity  to  be  tricky.  His 
mother  before  him  was  a  fortune-teller,  and  Joseph 
seemed  to  inherit  the  disposition  of  a  juggler.  When 
about  seventeen  years  of  age  he  got  possession  of  a 
kidney-shaped  stone,  found  in  a  neighbor's  well,  and 

1  On  pp.  550-552,  we  have  the  "city  of  Angola,"  the  "land  of  David,"  the 
"land  of  Joshua,"  the  "land  of  Jashen,"  and  the  "land  of  Shem "  men- 
tioned, but  it  is  impossible  to  decide  whether  in  the  land  southward  or  the 
land  northward. 


AMERICAN    ANTIQUITIES  1 47 

straightway  discovered  remarkable  properties  in  it.  He 
would  put  this  stone  in  the  bottom  of  his  hat,  draw 
the  hat  over  his  face  so  as  to  exclude  the  light  and, 
looking  at  the  stone  in  the  dark,  he  would  discover 
where  stolen  articles  could  be  found,  or  tell  one's  for- 
tune. For  example  this  story  is  told  of  him  :  A  neigh- 
boring farmer  lost  his  cow  and  came  to  young  Smith 
and  asked  him  if  he  could  tell  him  where  it  was.  With 
becoming  dignity  and  self-possession  the  latter  replied, 
"I  don't  know,  but  I  will  try."  And  putting  the 
stone  in  his  hat  and  drawing  it  over  his  face,  he  looked 
a  long  while,  and  finally  began  to  see  the  outlines  of  a 
cow,  which  grew  plainer  until  he  was  able  to  describe 
the  animal  perfectly.  It  was  the  man's  cow.  He  con- 
tinued to  look,  until  presently  he  described  the  sur- 
roundings, so  that  the  man  recognized  the  place,  a 
small  piece  of  heavy  timber,  enclosed  by  a  high  fence, 
and  located  about  four  miles  from  the  farmer's  home. 
He  paid  Mr.  Smith  his  dollar,  went  to  the  place  and 
found  his  cow.  Surprised  and  joyful,  he  began  to  tell 
everybody  he  met  what  a  wonderful  man  that  Smith 
was.  But  presently  he  met  one  neighbor  who,  as  soon 
as  he  heard  the  story,  burst  out  with  :  ' '  Well,  I  should 
think  Joe  Smith  could  a  told  where  that  cow  was ;  I 
seen  him  drive  her  there  myself!"  This  occurred 
several  years  before  Smith  blossomed  out  as  a  prophet 
of  the  Lord,  and  could  easily  be  excused  as  a  youthful 
trick,  only  for  the  fact  that  this  tricky  nature  clung  to 
him,  grew  upon  him  until  it  entered  prominently  into 
the  most  sacred  relations,  and  dominated  his  life. 

When  Joseph  Smith  began  his  work  as  prophet,  he 
held  little  meetings  in  the  modest  dwelling  of  his 
parents  in  a  wood,  one  and  a  half  miles  south  of  Pal- 
myra, N.  Y. ,  and  sometimes  his  followers  thought  they 
hea»xi  thundering  overhead,  as  if  the  Lord  was  answer- 
ing their  prayers  from  heaven.      The  family  moved  to 


I48  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

Ohio  with  the  prophet,  and  when  the  building  was  torn 
down  afterward,  several  cannon  balls  were  found  con- 
cealed under  a  false  roof  over  the  rafters.  They  could 
be  moved  by  a  string  so  as  to  give  forth  a  rolling  sound 
as  of  thunder.1 

Twice  he  essayed  to  walk  upon  the  water,  in  imita- 
tion of  our  Lord  upon  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  and  each 
time  the  announcement  brought  a  crowd.  The  para- 
phernalia in  each  case  was  the  same.  A  platform  of 
planks  was  secretly  constructed  just  under  the  surface 
of  turbid  water,  but  Providence  intervened  in  each  in- 
stance to  confound  the  plans  of  the  head  of  the  church. 

The  first  instance  was  in  western  Pennsylvania,  and 
the  spot  selected  for  the  miracle  was  the  still  water  just 
below  the  breast  of  the  dam.  Some  mischievous  boys 
surreptitiously  removed  a  plank  where  the  pool  was 
deepest,  and  Joseph,  walking  forth  on  the  water  with 
the  greatest  assurance,  suddenly  disappeared  with  a 
loud  splash  as  if  some  gigantic  crustacean  had  pulled 
him  under.  The  second  attempt  was  in  Canada,  and 
a  member  of  a  Baptist  church  at  Evanston,  Wyoming, 
who  witnessed  it  as  a  girl,  is  my  authority.  In  this 
instance  the  rapidly  running  water  had  destroyed  the 
integrity  of  the  invisible  platform,  and  the  prophet  had 
a  narrow  escape  from  drowning. 

Sidney  Rigdon  was  quite  the  equal  of  Joseph  Smith 
in  his  willingness  to  descend  to  this  sort  of  jugglery. 
In  fact  the  Mormon  Church  excommunicated  him  from 
its  fellowship  for  being  "a  coward  and  a  traitor," 
and  for  false  revelations  in  support  of  his  claim 
to  succeed  Joseph  Smith  in  the  presidency  of  the 
church.2 

1  The  above  fact  was  related  to  me  thirteen  years  ago  in  Palmyra,  N.  Y.,  by 
an  old  man  who  had  lived  there  all  his  life — a  very  intelligent  and  respectable 
man,  a  printer  by  trade,  and  who  had  set  up  the  larger  portion  of  the  type 
for  the  first  edition  of  the  Hook  of  Mormon. 

'-See  B.  H.  Robert's  "Succession  to  the  Presidency,"  pp.  2-10. 


AMERICAN    ANTIQUITIES  149 

After  moving  to  Kirtland,  Ohio,  ' '  speaking  with 
tongues"  was  much  practised,  and  the  "tongues" 
were  alleged  to  be  those  of  vanished  Indian  races. 
The  mysterious  gabble  which  was  heard  at  the  prayer 
meetings  infected  the  imaginations  of  the  small  boys 
who  heard  it  and  they  would  imitate  it  fluently  upon 
the  streets.  The  astounding  presumption  of  Mr. 
Rigdon  is  illustrated  in  a  story  told  me  fourteen  years 
ago  by  an  old  retired  clergyman  then  living  in  Kirtland 
and  who,  as  a  boy,  surpassed  all  his  fellows  in  talking 
this  gibberish.  Sidney  Rigdon  invited  him  to  speak  at 
a  prayer  meeting,  and  the  lad,  carried  away  by  the  ex- 
citement of  the  occasion,  fairly  outdid  himself  in  vehe- 
ment nonsense.  Then  Rigdon  arose  and  gravely  an- 
nounced that  the  boy  had  been  speaking  to  them  in  the 
language  of  the  ancient  people  of  Zarahemlah  ;  and 
proceeded  to  interpret  what  the  boy  had  said.  The 
excitement  in  the  congregation  became  intense  ;  Rigdon 
grew  eloquent,  soared  higher  and  higher — then  sud- 
denly ceased,  saying  in  substance  :  "  Brethren,  the  boy 
has  gone  beyond  me  ;  I  cannot  find  words  to  follow 
him  farther  in  the  sublime  thoughts  that  he  has  ut- 
tered." 

Mr.  Smith  and  Mr.  Rigdon  were  apparently  well 
mated.  For  nearly  twenty  years  they  worked  together 
like  brothers — five  years  in  secret,  preparing  the  Book 
of  Mormon  and  the  strange  religious  system  that  should 
accompany  it,  then  openly  in  schemes  for  palming  the 
book  off  upon  the  public  as  the  word  of  God. 

An  intelligent  Christian  lady,  and  our  own  family 
physician  in  Clinton,  Iowa,  related  to  me  the  following 
incident,  of  which  she  was  an  eye-witness  when  a  girl : 

Mr.  Smith  and  Rigdon  were  conducting  a  successful  revival  in 
a  grove  in  central  Ohio  near  her  father's  residence.  At  an  after- 
noon meeting  Rigdon  was  urging  that  the  day  of  miracles  was 
not  yet  passed.     In  the   midst  of  an  eloquent  passage  he  turned 


I50  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

around  and  pointed  to  a  large  tree  some  distance  away  and  said 
substantially  :  "If  God  should  strike  that  tree  with  lightning,  now 
while  I  am  speaking  to  you,  and  when  there  is  not  a  cloud  in  the 
sky,  it  would  be  an  attestation  of  the  divinity  of  the  Book  of 
Mormon  and  of  the  gospel  we  are  preaching  to  you."  He  went 
on  in  this  strain  until  the  whole  congregation  was  looking  at  the 
tree,  when  suddenly  there  was  a  mighty  report  that  shook  the 
ground  where  they  were  sitting,  and  the  tree  went  into  a  thousand 
pieces. 

Some  fainted  ;  nearly  every  one  thought  it  a  real  miracle,  and 
were  ready  to  be  baptized  ;  but  a  few  long-headed  men  made  an 
investigation  and  found  that  the  tree  had  been  blown  up  by 
powder  placed  there  during  the  previous  night,  with  Smith  oper- 
ating the  fuse.  This  scene  ends  with  two  men  fleeing  from  the 
community  before  nightfall. 

One  other  circumstance  it  seems  desirable  to  mention. 
While  the  first  edition  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  was 
being  printed,  Mr.  Smith  concocted  a  crazy  scheme, 
whose  object  does  not  clearly  appear.  He  copied  some 
of  his  reformed  Egyptian  characters  from  the  plates  and 
sent  them  by  the  hand  of  Martin  Harris  to  Prof.  An- 
thon,  of  New  York,  the  great  linguist  of  that  day,  for 
his  inspection.  The  professor  afterward  reported  as  fol- 
lows : 

A  brief  examination  convinced  me  that  it  was  a  mere  ho  ax,  and 
a  very  clumsy  one  too.  The  characters  presented  the  most  sin- 
gular medley  that  I  ever  beheld.  Greek,  Hebrew,  and  all  sorts  of 
letters,  more  or  less  distorted,  either  through  unskillfulness  or 
from  actual  design,  were  intermingled  with  sundry  delineations  of 
half-moons,  stars,  and  other  natural  objects. 

Apostle  Orson  Pratt  said  of  the  same  transaction  : 
"Mr.  Harris  very  earnestly  requested  him  (Professor 
Anthon)  to  read  it,  but  he  replied  that  he  could  not.  .  . 
It  was  a  sealed  writing  to  the  learned  professor." 

His  brother,  Parley  P.  Pratt,  says  the  same  in  sub- 
stance :  "He  examined  them,  but  was  unable  to  de- 
cipher them  correctly." 

Well  now,  in  face  of  the  facts  as  above  stated,  Mr. 


AMERICAN    ANTIQUITIES  I  5  I 

Smith  was  bold  enough  to  publish  to  the  world  the 
following  absolute  falsehood — found  in  the  "Pearl  of 
Great  Price,"  a  book  professedly  inspired  of  God  : 

Some  time  in  this  month  of  February  the  aforementioned  Mr. 
Martin  Harris  came  to  our  place,  got  the  characters  which  I  had 
drawn  off  the  plates,  and  started  with  them  to  the  city  of  New 
York.  For  what  took  place  relative  to  him  and  the  characters,  I 
refer  to  his  own  account  of  the  circumstances,  as  he  related  them 
to  me  after  his  return,  which  was  as  follows  :  "I  went  to  the  city 
of  New  York  and  presented  the  characters,  which  had  been  trans- 
lated, with  the  translation  thereof,  to  Professor  Anthon,  a  gentle- 
man celebrated  for  his  literary  attainments.  Professor  Anthon 
stated  that  the  translation  was  correct,  more  so  than  any  he  had 
before  seen  translated  from  the  Egyptian.  I  then  showed  him 
those  which  were  not  yet  translated,  and  he  said  they  were  Egyp- 
tian, Chaldaic,  Assyrian,  and  Arabic,  and  he  said  that  they  were 
true  characters.  He  gave  me  a  certificate  certifying  to  the 
people  of  Palmyra  that  they  were  the  true  characters,  and  that  the 
translation  of  such  of  them  as  had  been  translated  was  also  cor- 
rect. .  .  I  left  him  and  went  to  Dr.  Mitchell,  who  sanctioned  what 
Professor  Anthon  had  said  respecting  both  the  characters  and  the 
translation."  1 

A  more  daring,  bare-faced,  out-and-out  falsehood  it 
would  be  difficult  to  conceive.  And  yet  for  the  sake 
of  foisting  upon  the  public  his  great  fraud — the  Book 
of  Mormon — he  is  willing  to  descend  to  such  depths  of 
infamous  deception. 

And  the  strange  thing  about  it  is,  and  the  sad  thing 
that  makes  one's  blood  boil,  that  in  seventy  years  since 
that  book  was  first  published  nearly  one  million  persons, 
very  many  of  them  good,  honest,  earnest  Christian 
people,  have  been  deluded  and  deceived,  and  have 
wrecked  their  families  and  their  characters,  and  we  fear 
their  souls,  on  the  book  and  the  religious  system  con- 
cocted by  these  two  men.  And  to-day  there  are  two 
thousand  young  men,  wide-awake  and  sharp,  out  on 
missionary  tours  in   our  country  and  in  nearly  every 

1  See  "  Pearl  of  Great  Price,"  p.  45. 


152  THE    MORMONS    AND    THEIR    BIBLE 

civilized  country  on  the  globe.  And  this  number  is  to 
be  rapidly  increased — for  they  have  not  less  than  six 
to  eight  thousand  more  who  are  pledged  to  go  and 
ready  to  go  whenever  called  for  by  the  head  of  the 
church.  In  fact,  the  leaders  are  planning,  as  we  learn, 
to  put  not  less  than  two  missionaries  into  each  separate 
county  in  every  State  in  the  Union.  And  all  these 
missionaries  have  been  and  are  being  thoroughly  trained 
for  their  work.  They  a?-e  all  copies  of  the  two  originators 
of  Mormonism — adepts  at  putting  on  pious  faces,  and 
making  loud  pretense  of  loyalty  to  Jesus  Christ  and  to 
the  "good  old  Bible,"  only  in  the  end  to  wreck  all 
who  can  be  captured  by  them. 

The  author's  earnest  hope  and  prayer  to  God  is  that 
this  little  volume  may  go  forth  to  unlock  the  prison 
doors  and  let  the  captured  ones  out ;  to  break  the  spell 
where  the  charmers  are  beginning  to  succeed,  and  to 
be  the  "ounce  of  prevention"  in  every  place  in  our 
country  where  these  men  go  freighted  with  the  pesti- 
lence and  the  deadly  potion — spiritually — that  these 
two  men  originated  and  have  mixed  for  them. 


Date  Due 

FACULTY 

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BP827.L211901 

The  Mormons  and  their  Bible 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00036  9902 


